Mark Barnes previews the Saturday night clash between the Sydney Roosters and Wests Tigers at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
MATCHDAY NEWS
MATCHDAY SCHEDULE
Sydney Roosters v Wests Tigers
Venue: Sydney Cricket Ground
Date: Saturday August 20, 7:35pm
MATCHDAY TEAM NEWS
Related: NRL Team List Tuesday
Embed from Getty ImagesSydney Roosters: 1. James Tedesco 2. Daniel Tupou 3. Paul Momirovski 4. Joseph Manu 5. Joseph Suaalii 6. Luke Keary 7. Sam Walker 8. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves 9. Sam Verrills 10. Matthew Lodge 11. Angus Crichton 12. Nat Butcher 13. Victor Radley 14. Connor Watson 15. Egan Butcher 16. Drew Hutchison 17. Terrell May 18. Kevin Naiqama 19. Fletcher Baker 20. Oliver Gildart 21. Ben Thomas 22. Siua Wong
No changes to the seventeen named last week though there has been rumours Trent Robinson has considered resting some of his players, notably James Tedesco. This has also been reported as a possibility by the Daily Telegraph. Resting any players would however be an interesting decision considering the Roosters are not yet guaranteed to be playing finals football still. Based on that, a round 25 rest for some of the Roosters stars appears more likely.
Embed from Getty ImagesWests Tigers: 1. Daine Laurie 2. Brent Naden 3. Starford To’a 4. Asu Kepaoa 5. Ken Maumalo 6. Adam Doueihi 7. Jock Madden 8. James Tamou 9. Fa’amanu Brown 10. Zane Musgrove 11. Luke Garner 12. Kelma Tuilagi 13. Joe Ofahengaue 14. Fonua Pole 15. Austin Dias 16. Thomas Freebairn 17. Alex Seyfarth 18. Jake Simpkin 19. Kitione Kautoga 20. Brandon Tumeth 21. Junior Pauga 22. Tyrone Peachey
Ken Maumalo (knee) returns which sees Starford To’a shift to the centres and James Roberts drop out of the team. Tyrone Peachey is dropped in favour of Alex Seyfarth.
Referee: Ben Cummins
MATCHDAY PREVIEW
The Sydney Roosters are surging at the right time of the season in typical fashion for Trent Robinson’s side and will look to take another step towards locking up their spot when they host the Wests Tigers at the SCG on Saturday night. Just over a month ago, it looked a possibility that the tricolours could miss the top eight altogether, however, five consecutive wins have seen them regain form.
Last week the Roosters grabbed another top four scalp, easily defeating the Cowboys 32-18 in a match the Roosters never trailed in for skipper James Tedesco’s 200th game. Players whose form may have been patchy during the first half of the season such as Walker, Keary and star forwards like Crichton and JWH, is a distant memory with all hitting their straps and firing now.
Despite some key injuries the Roosters have replaced players seamlessly with Nat Butcher and Matt Lodge providing much needed punch in the pack after being promoted to start. The last two games the Roosters pack has dominated with the team gaining 25%+ more metres than their opposition in each contest. If the pack continues to dominate and lay a platform, it will be very hard for the Tigers to contain the Roosters classy backline.
Aside from the halves, look for Tedesco and Manu to terrorise the Tigers and set up plenty of scoring opportunities for both Tupou and Suaalii.
The Tigers find themselves in a precarious position with three rounds to play. Falling back to last spot following a heavy loss to the Sharks last weekend and the Titans upsetting Manly, they are now staring down the prospect of the first wooden spoon in the history of the joint venture club. It won’t be an easy ask to avoid it with a tough matchup this week against one of the competitions in form teams.
The Tigers will be heavily relying once again on an Adam Doueihi masterclass with a man of the match performance from the number six maybe the only hope the Tigers have of staying competitive.
Middle forwards like Musgrove and Joe Ofahengaue in particular, have been some of the few bright spots and improvers in the Tigers pack in 2022.
For a Tigers upset they will also need to lead the forward pack to battle the Roosters big men and stop the metres in the middle.
It is a tall task for the Tigers to upset this week and it seems if the Roosters are full strength the Tigers best performance might simply be preventing a huge loss.
Embed from Getty ImagesINTERESTING FACT
- Roosters have scored the first try in 14 of the last 15 matchups vs the Tigers.
- The Tigers 25% win percentage versus the Roosters is the lowest of any opponent.
- Daniel Tupou loves playing the Tigers, holding a strike rate of 16 try in his past 12 matchups.
- The Roosters have won 5 in a row whilst the Tigers have only won 1 from their last 10 games.
MATCHDAY PREDICTION
Roosters by 30
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