Another team to have kept their finals hopes alive is the Sydney Roosters after their big 42-12 success over the Newcastle Knights. 

It was James Tedesco at the heart of the action as he scored and assisted tries at will for his Roosters side.

After some early hard-fought battles, it would be the Knights who took the lead on the back of a penalty goal from Kalyn Ponga.

Ponga’s night would soon be over, however, when he left the field for a concussion and failed to pass his HIA.

The first try of the night came on the back of some stellar work from Connor Watson.

Starting the game for the Roosters, Watson broke the line and found the returning Luke Keary on his inside who raced away to score.

A left to right shift and a failed intercept attempt by Edrick Lee saw the Roosters with a two-on-one and Tedesco found Joseph Suaalii to score his first of the game.

Tedesco and Suaalii were again involved as the young winger turned provider. He caught Sam Walker’s crossfield kick and found Tedesco who dived over to score.

The aerial specialist in Daniel Tupou then easily outjumped Enari Tuala, catching Luke Keary’s kick and spinning away from Tuala to score.

Quick hands on the right from Tedesco and then Paul Momirovski once again led to a try for the Roosters, this time Suaalii’s second.

Down 26-2, the Knights’ night went from bad to worse when Dane Gagai was sin-binned. In true Roosters fashion, they would capitalise.

Tedesco would take the line on and somehow pop out a ball to Tupou for his second try of the game.

Angus Crichton then got in the act when a quick, slick pass from Sam Walker found Crichton running the perfect line to score.

And it was that man again in Tedesco who sparked the next try; he raced through the line off a Matt Lodge offload before Egan Butcher finished the play off.

Although the game was done and dusted, the Knights did show some resolve at the back end, snagging two late tries.

The first was to Phoenix Crossland who backed up a break from Lee to score.

Lee would then continue his try-scoring form when he barged over in the final minutes.

Knights coach Adam O’Brien knows his side has a lot of work to do to reach the level they want to be at.

“We have got a lot of work to do to fix where we are at as a group, it’s going to take a lot of work, it’s going to take a lot of time unfortunately,” O’Brien said.

Roosters coach Trent Robinson says his side has been building towards a performance like this for a while, it was just about execution.

“I feel like we have been building towards that over the last couple of months. It’s not real complicated, we are just ready to play our style of footy a little bit more,” Robinson said.

NRL News Player of the Game

3. James Tedesco (SYD)

2. Joseph Suaalii (SYD)

1. Connor Watson (SYD)

Sydney Roosters youngster Joseph Suaalii

By ricky

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