Undermanned in the halves with Cooper Cronk out, Luke Keary stepped up and led the Sydney Roosters to a win over the Manly Sea Eagles.
The opening half was all about the Keary masterclass as his four try assists toppled Manly and gave the Roosters a 22-0 lead at the interval.
The first half illustrated the dominance of Manly, who were out-matched and out-muscled in the forwards and had only 37 percent possession.
An early misjudgment from Manly gifted the first try to the Roosters; it was Brett Morris to capitalise off Keary’s kick.
A 40/20 from Latrell Mitchell soon followed that led to a repeat set and ultimately a second Roosters try.
Keary showed his cut-out skills with a sublime pass for winger Daniel Tupou to score, just as the heavens opened.
The wet weather did not dampen the Roosters attacking play, though.
Keary took the line on himself, held off defenders and offloaded for a try to captain Boyd Cordner.
Tupou’s second try came later as the Roosters marched down the field and the hulking winger soared highest from a Keary chip.
The second half saw a much improved Manly side come onto the field.
Winning the half 16-0, they were led by some of their younger stars in Reuben Garrick and Manase Fainu.
Fainu scored a try of his own to kick things off with a dart from dummy half to get over the line.
Garrick then took an inside pass down the field for a break and found Jake Trbojevic who scored Manly’s second.
Despite their best efforts in the second half, Manly only managed a third try, a mere consolation, to Moses Suli.
A spirited performance, however, as the Roosters look to avoid second half fade-outs.
Manly coach Des Hasler believes that a win is not too far away for his side but they need to fix some basic errors first.
“There’s a few areas in our game that we need to work on and that’s our time and possession in field position,” Hasler said.
“I thought we were a little careless in that regard and that’s what they [Roosters] did well.”
“They built pressure and it lasted and were able to build points off that.
“We have to stay at the other end longer and execute better and with the ball in field position.”
Roosters coach Trent Robinson was pleased with his side’s overall execution in the first half.
“I thought execution with stuff we wanted to get on was very high,” Robinson said.
“Execution of the try-scoring plays, our kicking and end of sets were very good.
“Defensively we were rock solid. I thought there was a good base there.”
NRL News Player of the Game
3. Luke Keary
2. Reuben Garrick
- Boyd Cordner