Jersey Flegg: Dragons down Raiders in rain

The visitors opened the scoring just nine minutes in through Malachi Smith who found himself on the end of a nice kick back on the inside courtesy of Tariq Tanner to make it 6-0.

Boosted by a yardage penalty, the Dragons were able to answer a little over a quarter of the way in with Reed flinging a beautiful cut-out the way of an unmarked Toby Rumble to score and cut the deficit back to 6-4.

The Raiders were able to extend their edge prior to the half with Jaxon Lavender venturing down a short right side and crafting an offload to Luke Tuialii who did well to shrug away from the cover and get the ball to the turf just inside the corner post.

Canberra lost Shalom Uatisone to a head knock early in the second stanza reducing them to just 16 for the remainder of the clash.

The Dragons' rakes Kyan Hjaltason and Isaiah Fagalilo combined soon after to lock things up with the former fashioning a pinpoint grubber for the latter who got to it short of the dead ball line to score.

The hosts hit the lead soon after with Peckham-Harris slipping through on a right-side sweep play off some more nice Reed ball-playing.

Reed nailed the conversion from the right-hand touchline to give the Dragons a 16-10 lead with a little under a half-hour to play.

With the match entering its final quarter in the balance, it was again Reed who stepped up for the Red V.

The Dragons No.7 showed brilliant instincts to snatch a Canberra pass out of the air and race 90-plus metres untouched to dive over under the sticks and make it a double-digit game.

The Dragons were able to seal it late with Peckham-Harris' pace again creating space on a sweep play – this time off an attacking scrum – to send Saifiti Junior Saifiti over untouched in the left-hand corner.

Saifiti's four-pointer proved the contest's final say with the Dragons holding on to knock off a strong opponent on home soil.