Roosters halves combination Craig Wing and Brad Fittler led from the front, their heavy involvement early opening up a 28-6 lead at half time.

The Raiders – looking to keep their finals hopes alive – rallied early in the second half before Fittler scored in the 60th minute to seal the Sydney victory.

Justin Hodges continues to build his reputation as a rising NRL star by crossing twice for tries in the first half, while Wing also scored with Canberra folding their tents late in the game.

The Raiders, who would have joined the Melbourne Storm in the NRL top eight with a win over the Roosters, are now just a mathematical chance of making the NRL finals.

The Raiders threatened with the early territorial advantage, but the Roosters opened the scoring from an intercept by halfback Craig Wing close to his own tryline.

Wing offloaded to in form centre Justin Hodges, who promoted the ball deep into Canberra territory and then finished the incisive movement off two tackles later by scoring in the corner. Hodges’ try was converted by Craig Fitzgibbon to give Sydney a 6-0 lead after less than five minutes.

Soon after, Fitzgibbon himself crossed for a converted try after Brad Fittler opened up the Raiders with a jinking left foot step from his own thirty metres to make the score 12-0.

The Raiders were enjoying the territorial advantage, but seemed indifferent to the threat posed by the Roosters free flowing second phase play. Canberra soon hit back though, in form winger Phil Graham crossing under the posts in the 16th minute.

Raiders fullback Clinton Schifcofske added the extras, cutting the margin back to a converted try.

In the 26th minute, Sydney re-established their 12 point buffer, more nice work from fluid halves combination Fittler and Wing resulting in a converted try to Luke Ricketson.

But the Roosters weren’t finished, and added the match-sealing try just before halftime.

Centre Todd Byrne, preferred to Eric Grothe Jr. in Ricky Stuart’s side, busted a massive gap in the Raiders line, and offloaded to Brett Mullins for his 115th career NRL try.

Fitzgibbon couldn’t add the extras, but Sydney was comfortably in front 28-6 after the first forty minutes.

After the break, Canberra scored first to give them a chance of victory. Halfback Brett Finch sent a grubber kick wide for winger Jamaal Lolesi to pounce on, and he had the presence of mind to offload to Joel Monaghan for the well worked four-pointer.

Schifcofske converted from right in front to help the Raiders pull the deficit back to 28-12 with just on half an hour remaining.

But Roosters captain Fittler put the Canberra renaissance firmly in place, using his strength and the help of some teammates to crash over past five Raiders tacklers to score. The crowd booed vociferously, but referee Paul Simpkins wouldn’t listen to the complaints of Raiders captain Simon Woolford.

Fitzgibbon missed his second conversion attempt in a row, but the Roosters were up by 20 points with 20 minutes remaining.

Wing then added insult to injury, darting from first receiver to score besides the uprights for his 14th try of the season.

Fitzgibbon’s conversion made the final score 38-12