The Sydney Roosters ran out an unconvincing 26-18 victory against the Gold Coast Titans at Allianz Stadium on Monday night.
FINAL SCORE:
Roosters 28
Titants 16
The Sydney Roosters can move into the top four with a win over a Gold Coast Titans side struggling for confidence. Catch all the action on The Roar from 7:00pm (AEST).
The Tricolours head into this game at home after a win over the Dragons and looking for another as the semi-finals near.
The defending champions will be without injured pair Sonny Bill Williams and Jake Friend, but have shown signs in recent weeks that they have the potential to go back-to-back.
CATCH UP ON THE LATEST NRL HIGHLIGHTS:
>>Brisbane Broncos vs Canterbury Bulldogs
>>Manly Sea Eagles vs South Sydney Rabbitohs
>>Parramatta Eels vs Canberra Raiders
>>Newcastle Knights vs Melbourne Storm
>>New Zealand Warriors vs Cronulla Sharks
>>St George Illawarra Dragons vs Penrith Panthers
Heath L’Estrange gets his first run in the NRL for six years, replacing Friend at hooker.
2014 hasn’t really gone to plan for the Roosters, who have managed 11 wins and eight losses after winning the comp last year, but they remain in the hunt for another post-season appearance.
For the Titans, it has been the reverse. Gold Coast started the season strongly and were early competition front-runners but have fallen away and hard. They have lost their past two games in a row and won just two of their past five.
The Queensland side is floundering in 13th place with 20 points, they are no chance of the wooden spoon but are six points off the top eight.
Already founder Michael Searle and coach John Cartwright have been axed, with this match the last of Cartwright’s reign.
Considering the former Penrith forward has been at the Titans since their 2007 establishment, surely his players will want to send him out a winner before Neil Henry takes over.
Gold Coast will be without Brad Tighe and David Mead but welcome back William Zillman and Kalifa Faifai Loa.
This season has been a horrible one for the Titans and it will take a fair upset away from home tonight for the trend to be reversed.
My tip is that the Roosters will get the win here by at least 10 points.
Join The Roar from 7.00pm (AEST) for all the action from Allianz.
Henry
Guest
Could you please publish crowd numbers for us that keep definite records. Thank You
Carlos
Guest
Monday night football is a waste of time if it had been on a saturday or sunday afternoon there would have been a good crowd
paul
Guest
I thought thel roosters were realy good. The titans turnd up and hav a great record against us. Our d in second half was great and maloney is starting to fire. All you chook haters beware we know how to win when it matters. Toupou and sbw frend to come back. I think sths deserve to be favourites and hav a great feel to them and cowboys will be there. The roosters hav been grinding because maloney been off and every team brings ther best. Now wher getting to business end I feel we have other gears we can go to.
clipper
Guest
I think they get some of the North Korean election counters for the job.
Joister
Guest
@Elam .... yep ... and apart from Malony's kicks to force some restarts same old kicking option ... little wonder they have some of the worse numbers regards keeping the pressure on / line drop-outs - feeling very frustrated as a roosters fan
kye
Roar Rookie
No fans at the game, so they are obviously selling all their stuff to the couch potatoes.
Clark
Guest
On TV it looked more like 600
Elma Dudd
Guest
Junk junk junk by the chooks . They will not be a threat this year . They have become a lazy mistake riddled side . I can't see them turning it around from here.
Muzz
Guest
I apologize then.I presumed that you were having a little late night AFL fan tr0ll.
AR
Guest
Not the point I was making Muzz.
Mark
Guest
It's now a game scheduled by the TV operators, Nine chooses their games and Fox then gets theirs, The NRL can't complain over crowd numbers when they sell out the game like they have. Nine and Fox want people on their backsides watching on their Tv's and you can't blame them they paid about 1 Billion dollars for the rights and need the numbers to sell to advertising.
Muzz
Guest
It was bloody cold out there and those that went enjoyed the game. But yeh, yours is bigger than mine, AR. Do you want a medal????
Marco
Guest
Who does the counting these days? Every weekend people question the reported numbers.you can see why.
AR
Guest
The Roosters are not just a foundation club, they are the reigning premiers. 6,345 is just woeful...and it looked nothing like it.
Marco
Guest
Agreed. Why do they play on Monday nights anyway? Is it just for the benefit of foxtel because it never seems to benefit the competition?
ELAM DUDD
Guest
Absolute rubbish from the Roosters and im confident in saying I have no need to worry about booking Grand Final tickets this year. They have become a lazy undisciplined side this year with nothing in attack except the 5th tackle kick . Very Very disappointing.
Tom
Guest
that is impossible. Looked like a few hundred.
BrumbyJack
Guest
You are right Pelican. Roosters looked very unimaginative in attack, and worryingly, their defence was slow and allowed plenty of opportunities. Worrying signs for the Chooks
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Whatever the crowd was it looked pathetic.Again reinforces the view Monday nights ,are for the eventual scrapheap.And emphasises the point,no long distance fan has a ghost of a chnmace to attend. The code will never get 20,000 averages with this schedule hanging over the season.
turbodewd
Guest
6345