Steelers blow Raiders away with second-half blitz

The Steelers trailed 14-0 early after producing their second sluggish start in as many weeks, and were still eight points adrift of the hosts come halftime. By fulltime, gun centre Hayden Buchanan had a hat-trick and Illawarra had run in 32 unanswered points.

While being slow out of the blocks is something his side will need to address, Timmins couldn't fault his side's response when down at the break.

"We went down there expecting the Raiders to come out firing because they got a score put on them at home last week against the Knights," Timmins said.

"I said to the boys 'they're going to come out, it's going to be a different Raiders side' and they did what we expected. They were pretty fired up, scored a couple of quick tries on us in the first half, which was disappointing.

"We were just confident if we could hold the ball we'd score points and I think we completed 14 out of 16 sets in the second half. We've just got some class in our outside backs and halves that can score points.

"We ended up scoring some really good tries and sort of coming away with a good comeback win, but it's been two weeks in a row now we've given sides a start.

"It's just something for us to work on in the next couple of weeks."

The early victories are priceless for the Steelers, who play three of their opening four games in Wollongong, including this Saturday's showdown with Melbourne at Collegians.

Beyond that, the Steelers face perennial heavyweights Parramatta, Penrith and New Zealand, the latter two on the road part of a month-long stretch away from home.

Timmins said it's crucial his side banks early wins, with wobbles in the starter's blocks not something it can afford moving forward.

"We're happy to have the two wins, but we've come from behind in both, so we just need to be better," Timmins said.

"Against quality sides, we just can't afford to start the way we have and turn over too much ball. We're not the biggest side, but we're pretty fit and we're fast, so if we can get sides in a bit of a grind, we can score points.

"We've just got to keep building on it. It's been obviously a a good start to have two wins, but we've got a tough game this week against Melbourne who are travelling all right.

"We've spoken about how our start to the year is really important. We have three out of four at home, and one on the road, but then we do have a real tough run there.

"We have Penrith away, the Warriors away in New Zealand into St George who are going really well too. We need to try and bank as many of these early wins as we can."

Buchanan had the first of his three tries just minutes before halftime to cut the margin back to eight, while Timmins was also full of praise for halves Kade Reed and Lyhkan King-Togia.

"Those three boys that have done some NRL training in (Kade) Reed, Lyhkan and Hayden were great yesterday," Timmins said.

"We had some other blokes around them that were really good too. Drew Langdon and Daniel Daniel Meafou, our captain, were really good, but those boys showed their class.

"You could tell they're benefitting from that training around the NRL boys and doing a full preseason. It's handy to have that bit of pace and Reedy who's a real genuine number seven.

"He controlled the game really well and Lyhkan did a great job too in getting Hayden some early ball, which is something we want to do because he's one of our main strike weapons. That worked well for us in the second half."

Courtney Crawford's Tarsha Gale Cup side had no such issues with their start in Canberra, scoring their first try just three minutes in through Chelsea Savill.

Four more followed before halftime, with Mia-Rose Walsh, Charlotte Basham, Evie McGrath and Hope Millard all getting across for a 30-6 cushion at the break.

The scoring pace slowed dramatically in the second stanza, Ella Koster the only try-scorer as the Steelers made it a 2-0 start to the season with a 36-6 win.

It was a much harder graft for the Steelers Lisa Fiaola Cup side at Morry Breen Oval on the Central Coast, tries to Maddalyn Bullock, Halle Barrett and Michala Hardy combining to get them home 12-10 over the Roosters.

The Steelers Harold Matthews squad had a bye.