NRL Las Vegas 2025 LIVE updates: Jillaroos dominate England, Raiders run riot against Warriors
It sounds like a cruel experiment.
Drop a bunch of young men, with time and cash to burn, into the funnest place in the world and then instruct them not to have fun. And yet everywhere you look, the Raiders are having a ball.
Take Xavier Savage for instance. Earlier this week, he took life’s ultimate gamble, getting down on bended knee outside the Bellagio. Emboldened, he rolled the dice again, this time rushing out of the line to collect an intercept and burn 90 metres upfield untouched.
And how about Corey Horsburgh. This time last year, he and Ricky Stuart weren’t on speaking terms. Now that they’ve hugged it out, Big Red looks unstoppable.
Aside from being the first victim of the game’s play-the-ball crackdown, Horsburgh could do no wrong. Dominant in the early exchanges against a Warriors pack featuring new skipper James Fisher-Harris, Horsburgh broke the golden rule about props triggering a captain’s challenge. It was another gamble that came off.
Even Hudson Young was making merry. The Villain of Vegas was involved in everything. Forever looking for collision – at one point he was on the end of Jackson Ford bell-ringer – he took his partying ways to the field.
Matt Timoko and Xavier Savage celebrate.Credit: AP
Nothing exemplified the Green Machine’s energy more than when Young pressured Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad into spilling a bomb to earn his side one of their five tries.
Occasionally, Canberra’s enthusiasm got the better of them. Joseph Tapine hammered Mitch Barnett illegally. A sin bin in Sin City.
Before the game began, Las Vegas Raiders rookie Tyler Manoa was tasked with sounding the Viking horn. Just as he was putting his lips to the new American-made piece, the Wahs fans drowned out the trumpeting. It was one of the few times they had cause to raise their voices.
Fisher-Harris, in his first game as Warriors captain, was also kept quiet. It was expected to be a grind because of the condensed field, but such was the Raiders’ dominance in the middle of it that their outside men soon benefited.
Rugba leeg: It’s football without pads or helmets.Credit: Getty Images
Savage and Kris finished with doubles, Matt Timoko also crossed. It could not have been a more impressive performance for a team that bookmakers have installed as among the wooden spoon favourites.
“It’s gonna be a good competition if we come last, which is what a lot of you are expecting,” Stuart said.
“One hundred per cent, we came here to make a statement.”
While Craig Bellamy is the master of preparing teams for round-one clashes, Ricky Stuart also has a knack for it. The Green Machine is not an opponent you want first-up, having not lost an opening round since 2019.
In further improving their record at Allegiant Stadium, they showed that this is truly the home of the Raiders.
“What these boys have experienced, you can’t fabricate, you can’t find somewhere else,” Stuart said of the Vegas voyage.
“We handled it extremely well. Obviously we had one stuff-up when we got here, but boys will be boys. I’ve been involved in that sort of stuff.
“You pull yourself together as a group and we did. The win has capped off a wonderful exercise.”
