Canberra suffered their first defeat at home this year two rounds back, when walloped by Melbourne (68 – 4).

Whilst it was a much better effort last week against competition front-runners Sydney Roosters, the Raiders still finished on the wrong side of a 28 – 22 score-line.

With the Titans surprise win over the Bulldogs on Monday night, the Raiders have slipped outside of the eight and are only two points in front of the Warriors and three ahead of Brisbane.

With these two sides up against Penrith and Parramatta respectively this week, the Raiders need a win here.

Being at home and, with three wins from their past four games over Canterbury, the Raiders showed enough in last week’s effort to be confident going into this match.

Canterbury are on the quick back-up after losing on Monday night to the Titans (26 – 16).

It was the Dogs’ first loss in the past four weeks and keeps them in fifth spot on the ladder on equal points with the Sharks, one ahead of the Knights and two ahead of their opponents here.

A total of 13 errors were costly for the Dogs on Monday night and will need to be rectified quickly as Canberra can capilitize on them and post points quickly.

Neither side can ill-afford a loss and that fact should make for a great clash here.

Three of the last four clashes between these two sides have resulted in a total point score of over 40 points however, with a win imperative for both sides, we may see a tighter clash here with the winning margin a slender one.

TIP: RAIDERS 1 – 12

Odds comparison by NRL Odds:

Canberra Raiders	1.90	1.90	1.77	1.90	1.90	1.90
Canterbury Bulldogs	1.90	1.90	2.08	1.90	1.90	1.90

Teams:

Canberra Raiders:
Anthony Milford, Sandor Earl, Jarrod Croker, Blake Ferguson, Jack Wighton, Terry Campese, Josh McCrone, David Shillington, Glen Buttriss, Dane Tilse, Josh Papalii, Joel Thompson, Joel Edwards. Interchange: Shaun Berrigan, Jake Foster, Brett White, Paul Vaughan, Reece Robinson

Canterbury Bulldogs:
Sam Perrett, Mitch Brown, Josh Morris, Timoeteo Lafai, Krisnan Inu, Josh Reynolds, Trent Hodkinson, Aiden Tolman, Michael Ennis, James Graham, Frank Pritchard, Tony Williams, Dale Finucane. Interchange: Dene Halatau, Josh Jackson, Tim Browne, Martin Taupau, Lachlan Burr