“If I had my time again…”: Sanders’ one regret in nail-biting loss

Following their tight 14-10 loss against the Bulldogs on Thursday night at GIO Stadium, Canberra Raiders halfback Ethan Sanders admits he would make one change to his performance in the final moments of the match.

After sealing the Raiders’ Round 1 victory with a field goal during golden point, Sanders was on the verge of being the game winner again.   

With less than a minute on the clock and Canberra down by four, the 22-year-old got the ball 15 metres away from the goal line for their final tackle of the set.

From there, he manages to wrong foot Viliame Kikau with a dummy pass, which opens up a massive hole in the Bulldogs’ defence.

With Sanders running past Kikau’s inside shoulder, the young halfback is now only metres away from tying the match with only one Bulldog standing in his way.

That Bulldog was Connor Tracey.

With the match on the line, the Dogs' fullback makes the game-winning tackle to see his side maintain their unbeaten start to the season.

After having some time to reflect on the loss, Sanders believed that if he could rewind the moment, he would have done it slightly differently and made use of his teammate in support.

“I probably should have passed that to Marto (Noah Martin) at the end,” Sanders told SEN League.

“He probably would have went over (to score). If I had my time again, I probably would have passed to him, but that happens.”

Despite Sanders not scoring the all-important try, SEN League’s Tim Mannah believes the halfback, in just his seventh NRL game, can put the moment behind him and have an impressive career.

“He’ll be replaying that moment over and over again,” Mannah said post-game.

“I think he is a great player. I don’t want to overtalk him.

“But I think he is an Origin player. I think he’ll play a lot of Origin in his career.

“He’s a great pick up for the Canberra Raiders. And to have your mentorship underneath someone like Ricky Stuart and learn under him.

“I think he’s in really good hands and I think he’s going to have a huge career.”

With back-to-back losses, the Raiders are hoping for a better outcome next week when they host the Sharks in a semi-final rematch.

The Bulldogs will play their first home game of the season at Accor Stadium against the Newcastle Knights on March 28.