The Sydney Roosters have locked themselves firmly into 4th position on the competition ladder after a 10-0 win over St George Illawarra.
Willie Mason, one of the Roosters’ key players will, however, sit out the remainder of the season after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in the first 10 minutes of the game.
Mason who has represented both NSW and Australia requires a full knee reconstruction. Not only is Mason’s injury a huge loss to the Roosters premiership hopes, it is also a huge loss for the Australian side as he will also miss Australia’s World Cup campaign.
Scoring a try in his first game back after being sidelined for almost 3 months, Anthony Minichiello gave the Roosters something to smile about. Minichiello, somewhat a hero, was making his third comeback after suffering potential career-ending spinal injuries.
Adding plenty of spark to the Roosters, Minichiello scored the first try in the 45th minute coming off a Braith Anasta grubber.
Anasta, the Roosters new skipper added points to the board with a try in the 59th minute after taking advantage of a fumble from Dan Hunt.
Losing Mason so early in the match meant the Roosters had to lift their defence but they managed to hold off the Dragons and come away with a gutsy win.
The Roosters’ win tonight secures them 4th position on the ladder and sees them up against 5th placed Brisbane next Friday at the Sydney Football Stadium.
If the Dragons are to hold on to 6th position, they are going to have to pray for a miracle win of the Dogs over Raiders as a win of 17 points or more for the Raiders will see them overtake St George on the competition ladder.
The Dragon’s loss could have come at an expense with forward Ben Creagh suffering concussion in the first half after being pole-axed off the ball by Setaimata Sa. Motionless for a few minutes, Creagh left the field and never returned.
The Roosters will also await the outcome of Mark O’Meley’s case in front of the judiciary as he was put on report for a high tackle on Jason Ryles shortly after Mason was leaving the field.
While Mason said he wasn’t going to dwell on his injury, Minichiello admitted he was relieved to survive his first match in almost 3 months without injury.
“It was a massive relief, the game out there was pretty brutal tonight and I came through pretty good,” Minichiello said.
Nathan Brown admitted that his team weren’t playing smart football and the match fitness was nothing when compared to that of the Rosoters.
“They definitely played smarter than us,” Brown said. He also stated that the Roosters were more aggressive than his team and he believed it was the first match in some time that the opposition was more physical.