The Roosters kept their finals hopes alive with a hard fought win against Wests Tigers at Allianz Stadium
Result
Sydney Roosters 32
Tries: Sam Walker 14th; Daniel Tupou 38th; Terrell May 47th; Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii 60th; Victor Radley 71st
Goals: Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii 15th, 29th, 39th, 48th, 61st, 72nd
Wests Tigers 8
Tries: Triston Reilly 6th
Goals: Apisai Koroisau 7th
Report
The two sides were gripped into an arm wrestle early on in the game and on with the visitors being the more patient and astute of the two sides to wait for an inevitable Roosters error, which came from poor interplay between Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Siua Wong. The Tigers didn’t waste any time and crossed with ease through Triston Reilly in the sixth minute.
The Roosters continued to throw away the ball but were more defensively resolute, this time holding the Tigers out soon after. Sam Walker made the most of his return to the NRL and got over for the tricolours early on to settle the nerves and level the score with a Joseph Suaalii conversion.
The two sides traded sets for the following five minutes before Daniel Tupou chipped into the Roosters’ error count and gifted the Tigers an attacking set from just over 30 metres out.
The sedate Tigers’ attack was given a reprieve by a misplaced foot from Waerea-Hargreaves attempting to block a kick to gift them another set of six on the Roosters’ line. Wests forced a goal line drop out at the back end of the set that saw Joey Manu pull up lame when trying to field the ball.
Seemingly intent on giving the Tigers a leg up, the Roosters fluffed the short drop out and gifted the visitors two points from in front of the sticks.
The Roosters built some pressure of their own at the back end of the half and a long-range break provided the home side with a scoring opportunity that was only denied by an offside Tigers left edge. The ensuing penalty gave Suaalii the chance to level the scores and he duly obliged, before the two sides traded sets for the majority of the rest of the half.
Wests got a chance late on down their left edge with a couple of minutes left only to kick the ball away for Asu Kepaoa to take the ball gathering Walker high and land himself on report.
Off the back of which, the Tricolours went up the other end and shifted down the left edge for Daniel Tupou to score with the final play of the half. Suaalii swung the ball from right to left to maintain perfection off the tee and the Roosters went into half time 14-8 in the lead.
Terrell May added to the Roosters’ lead at the start of the second half before the two sides were in a dead lock for the second ten-minute period of the half.
Suaalii broke the deadlock with a great solo finish before Radley added to the total just over ten minutes after to put the game all but out of reach for the Tigers.
The visitors did get a look in, however, with Waerea-Hargreaves landing himself in the sin bin for a poorly judged late tackle on Api Koroisau in the 64th minute, though Wests couldn’t make anything of the extra man with the score ending 32-8 to the Roosters.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR POINTS
Embed from Getty Images3 – Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii (Roosters)
2 – Daniel Tupou (Roosters)
1 – Billy Smith (Roosters)
