Raiders smash Titans 56-16 in NRL

Blake Austin and Jarrod Croker scored a double each to help Canberra beat Gold Coast 56-16 for their first victory on home soil this NRL season.

Blake Austin of Canberra celebrates with Jarrod Croker.

Canberra have smashed the Gold Coast 56-16 for their first victory on home soil this NRL season. (AAP)

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart is taking no comfort from his side's 56-16 belting of Gold Coast, believing they're no safer from the NRL wooden spoon than they were at the start of 2015.

It was the Raiders maiden 2015 win at GIO Stadium season on Saturday, having lost their opening three home matches for the first time in 33 years.

Red-hot five-eighth Blake Austin and skipper Jarrod Croker scored a double each, while in-form prop Paul Vaughan, Jordan Rapana, Josh Papalii, Sia Soliola, Edrick Lee and Sam Williams also crossed.

It's the first time since 2010 the club has racked up more than 50 points in a game.

But Stuart typically downplayed the win, which was their third in a row and has thrust them into the top eight.

He said a lapse early in the second half, in which Anthony Don scored two of his three tries for the Titans, nearly cost them.

"I wouldn't read into that too much, to be quite honest," Stuart said.

"It's round nine; only nine weeks ago we were going to get the wooden spoon. And there's no reason why in nine weeks' time we're still not going to get it.

"So we've just got to be worried about tomorrow, our first training session and then our next game. That's the way we look at it."

Stuart, surprised by the scoreline, reckons it was no more than a blip on the radar for the Titans who are without suspended star Greg Bird for another seven weeks.

"They've shown that they can do that to any football team too - it wouldn't surprise me for them to bounce out of that next week and put that on some other team," Stuart said.

"They'll bounce out of that as quick as they got into it."

Croker, whose double makes him the Raiders' fifth-leading tryscorer of all time (73), said confidence played an important role in what he deemed an almost-complete performance.

"It's just good to see 17 blokes all playing well and doing their job and it just flows across the field," he said.

The Titans haven't conceded more than 50 points since round 18, 2007, when they let slip 56 points to the Raiders on their first trip to Canberra.

Coach Neil Henry labelled it a "good old-fashioned flogging".

"We were outplayed across the park," he said.

"It's a kick in the backside for us.

"You can say what you like about (winning) three in a row and going alright for a month, but that just proves that you've got to be on your game every week.

"We'll take some lessons out of that and hopefully get back up for the Sharks next week."

Henry said the absence of Bird was no excuse and the team had to cope with not having him.


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