Rapana doubles up as Raiders outclass Rabbitohs

The Canberra Raiders ensured skipper Elliott Whitehead would celebrate his 200th game in style by downing the Rabbitohs 32-12 at GIO Stadium on Sunday night.

With Jamal Fogarty controlling the game and Hudson Young busting tackles for fun, the Green Machine were never seriously threatened on their way to a ninth win for the season.

A storming run on the short side by Young in the fifth minute set up the game's opening try for Jordan Rapana with Fogarty converting for a 6-0 advantage.

The Raiders doubled their lead in the 10th minute when Xavier Savage flew high to bring down a Fogarty bomb to cross for his 10th try of the season.

A blow for the Rabbitohs with winger Alex Johnston forced off in the 17th minute with an achilles injury before Seb Kris powered through some feeble Souths defence to make it 18-0 to the home side.

Desperate to be the next to score the Rabbitohs came up with a try to Taane Milne from a Cody Walker that was allowed to bounce by the Raiders. Damien Cook hit the upright with the conversion attempt and the score remained 18-4.

Three minutes before the break the Raiders had a fourth try when Fogarty kicked twice in the movement and Michael Chee Kam made a mess of the catch to hand Rapana his double.

The Rabbitohs pulled one back in the dying seconds of the half when Jack Wighton found Walker and the halfback bounced over to close the gap to 16 at the break.

The Raiders needed only four minutes in the second half to cross again as Ata Mariota powered his way across the line to stretch the lead back to 30-8.

On the back of three set restarts inside the Raiders red zone the Bunnies crashed over through back-rower Tallis Duncan to pull it back to 30-12 with Cook's third missed conversion proving costly.

An offside penalty against Rabbitoh Jacob Host with 10 minutes to play gave Fogarty the chance to add two more points and the win was in the bag at 32-12.