21 Apr 2014

Raiders steal win over Storm with late try

6:31 am on 21 April 2014

The Melbourne Storm have fallen to a last-gasp 24-22 loss to the Raiders, in their National Rugby League clash in Canberra.

In a dose of footballing karma, the Storm's defeat came a week after an officiating blunder gifted them a miraculous NRL win over the Dragons.

Raiders prop Paul Vaughan crossed in the 79th minute to level the scores and man-of-the-match Jarrod Croker kicked the conversion for the dramatic victory.

However, the Raiders could count themselves fortunate to even have a chance to steal the win over the Storm, who pipped the St George Illawarra side last Monday night with a try that the NRL later conceded shouldn't have been awarded as the final play-the-ball came after the fulltime siren.

Up 22-18 in the 71st minute, the Storm looked to have the match all wrapped up when winger Sisa Waqa appeared to cross for his second try of the match.

However, the on-field referee ruled Waqa bounced short of the tryline after a brilliant tackle from Croker.

It was referred to the video referee as a no-try, and while it appeared as though Waqa had grounded it on the line, there wasn't enough evidence to overturn the decision.