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Roosters 36 Tigers 4 As the score might suggest, it has been a pretty one sided game this evening as the Mitchell Pearce and James Maloney inspired Sydney Roosters defeat the Wests Tigers by 32 points at Allianz Stadium.
The first half started in an arm wrestle as apart from Daniel Tupou’s lone try in the 5th minute as he tiptoed down the sideline there was no scoring inside of the first 25 minutes. Neither team wanted to crack in defence and it was an intense game of Rugby League up until that point.
The first round of substitutions were made and all of a sudden the flood gates were opened as the Roosters went up a gear and the Tigers seemed to go down a gear. There tries were piled on in the space of just 7 minutes through Taukieaho, Boyd Cordner and Daniel Tupou who got the second of his three tries for himself this evening. This pushed the score to 22 – 0 and the Tigers finally got themselves going again however they certainly never dominated the game as suggested by the possession rate which was 56 – 44 in favour of the Roosters at half time.
Coming out for the second half one thing was very clear and that was that the Tigers had to be the first team to score. Instead the second half started very much like the first half in that there were no tries being scored by either side as the game was locked into a pretty fierce sort of arm wrestle stance again, although the flare had seemed to go out of the Roosters a little bit.
The Roosters ended up getting a penalty about 20 meters out and took the penalty goal to make the score 24 – 0. The Roosters then briefly got their attacking flare back as Tupou completed his hatrick and Mitchel Pearce scored a controversial try at best.
The last 10 minutes could almost be described as boring with neither team seeming to do much until Halatau scored with 3 minutes to go as a consolation for the Tigers. The Tigers best on ground was by far James Tedesco.
In the end the Roosters far too strong for the Tigers with Mitchell Pearce taking out man of the match honours and along side Maloney pushing for State of Origin inclusion.
The NRL resumes after the representative round break as the struggling Sydney Roosters take on the Wests Tigers at Allianz Stadium in Sydney. Join The Roar from 7:30pm (AEST) for live coverage and scores.
The Roosters have been on a greasy slide down the table after winning three from their first four games. Since then they have lost four on the trot and sit in 12th place.
Last time out they went down to the Dragons on Anzac Day by two points to continue their horror streak.
Meanwhile, the Wests Tigers sit in fifth place with just one more win than the Roosters, illustrating the closeness of the competition. Some of their losses have come on the back of big first-half leads and after a solid showing against the Bulldogs two weeks ago they will be keen to register another win.
In team news the Roosters welcome back Aidan Guerra into the second row and Mitch Aubusson onto the bench. Dylan Napa will come off the bench with Lagi Setu and Willie Manu out of the side that lost to the Dragons. Isaac Lui also has been named to start at lock, with Sio Siua Taukeiaho starting from the bench.
The Tigers will be happy to welcome back Keith Galloway from a shoulder injury. He comes into the side for Tim Simona obviously meaning a reshuffle is in order. Galloway will play in the front row and Chris Lawrence will play in the centres which creates room on the bench for Sauaso Sue, while Jack Buchanan will be 18th man.
The key battle in this game is shaping up to be between the fullbacks – Roger Tuivasa-Sheck for the Rosters verses James Tedesco for the Tigers. Sheck has been incredible for the Roosters in terms or run metres and creativity. Tedesco on the other hand has had some really good creativity for the Tigers and has fed off Luke Brooks and Mitchell Moses very well. His combination with Kevin Naiqama looks incredibly dangerous as well.
James Maloney, Mitchell Pearce, Michael Jennings, Boyd Cordner, Aidan Guerra, James Tedesco, Pat Richards, Aaron Woods, Robbie Farah and Curtis Sironen are all in with varying chances of playing Origin, so expect plenty of top-rate individual performances.
The history between the two clubs points to the Roosters, with the Tigers not winning one of their last five against the Roosters.
Prediction
The Roosters have been struggling in recent weeks but with Pearce and Maloney pushing for Origin they should be able to beat the Tigers in a close one.
Roosters by 6.
Join The Roar for our live coverage of this important clash from 7:30pm (AEST) and don’t forget to leave your comments in the section below.