First v second. The Cronulla Sharks v the Sydney Roosters. You would expect a closely fought contest but we got anything but here. Instead, the Roosters ran away rampant 40-0 winners.
Perhaps the opening kick-off was indicative of how it would all go when the Sharks dropped the ball in their first set.
From there, it took the Roosters just four minutes to get on the scoresheet when Otesa Pule powered over from close range.
Jocelyn Kelleher’s bomb then landed in no-man’s land with no Sharks catcher keen to pounce and instead, it bounced away for Olivia Kernick to score a try.
Sammy Bremner then got her name on the scoresheet with a classy solo try as she split open some Sharks defence, saw a gap and went straight through.
The Roosters razzle-dazzle and fast footy was too much for the Sharks to handle and the ball went left, then right, eventually resulting in Mia Wood’s first try.
Although the pass from Kernick is forward to the naked eye, it stood, and simply asserted the Roosters dominance.
It was not long at all into the second half before the Roosters scored again as Wood grabbed a second, courtesy of a lovely floating pass from Kernick.
The Roosters were just on a tear no matter when they had the ball and opposite winger Brydie Parker got in on the act this time after a quick pass from Kelleher.
The two wily girls then combined as Bremner scooped up the pass from dummy half and put Isabelle Kelly over to score a simple try.
The final try would come via Taina Naividi who took Kelly’s pass and grounded the ball in play.
The scary part for the Sharks and perhaps the rest of the competition – in addition to beating an undefeated team 40-0 – is that the score could have been higher.
It will leave Sharks fans disappointed but maybe wondering if this was ‘the loss they had to have’, if we were to use an old sport adage.
Sharks coach Tony Herman believes losing the ruck is what ultimately cost his side the game.
“I think they won the ruck on us; that 1, 2, 3, starting to get a roll on us and they got a lot of one-on-one contact with us and we didn’t seem to get any numbers in there,” Herman said.
“They would go 80-90m in their sets, then get repeat sets, and we probably didn’t have the resolve to defend that.”
Although Roosters coach John Strange was impressed with the scoreboard, he just wanted his team to focus on them and their own abilities.
“It’s more about us and how we play,” Strange said.
“I even spoke to the girls at half-time not really concerned about the scoreboard, it’s about proving to ourselves about how hard we’ve worked together.”
Ricky’s Player of the Game
3. Olivia Kernick (SYD)
2. Isabelle Kelly (SYD)
1. Sammy Bremner (SYD)
