Roosters players back Chad Townsend as veteran playmaker cops it for side’s poor attack

The attacking stats are a major concern, but Roosters teammates say it’s unfair to point the finger at the club’s halves.

The Roosters’ halves have come under fire for their inability to convert chances into points this season, but representative star Connor Watson says it’s unfair to point the finger at the playmakers when the rest of the team continues to make errors.

Only three teams have made more line-breaks than the Roosters this year, but they’ve been unable to turn field position into tries with the Tricolours averaging just under 17 points per game with only one win to their name after five rounds.

Veteran halfback Chad Townsend has attracted criticism for failing to set up a try this season, while five-eighth Sandon Smith has had some nice moments but hasn’t been as consistent as he would have liked.

Livewire halfback Sam Walker will eventually return from a serious knee injury to provide a spark, but Watson has full faith in Townsend to return to the form that saw him win a title in 2016 and set up 21 tries in his final season in North Queensland.

Chad Townsend’s teammates say recent criticism has been unfair. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

“Chad seems good. He’s been around a long time, he’s done so much in the game and he’s got so much experience, so it’s been a joy having him,” he said.

“He’s got a really composed head and I feel like he’s added a lot. He’s helped mentor these younger halves.

“There is external noise, but whether Chad listens to it, I’m not too sure.

“Being a half, when you win the games, you get the credit. But when you lose the game or the side is going bad, it’s your fault.

“We need to do a better job for our halves. We need to give them a better platform, and making errors out of our own end isn’t helping them.

“As a team, we can sort that discipline out and it’ll makes the halves’ job so much easier.”

The Roosters haven’t made life easy for their halves, with Trent Robinson’s men making the most errors in 2025, while they’ve conceded the third-most penalties.

It’s why Watson says it’s unfair to blame the halves, although they do need to provide more polish given the Roosters made more line-breaks against the Rabbitohs, Titans and Warriors, but lost all three games.

The Roosters have created plenty of opportunities but haven’t iced them. Picture: Brett Hemmings/Getty Images

“It’s not a halves thing, it’s everyone,” he said.

“When you get down there, you’ve got to build power through your first couple of plays. We’re probably not doing a good enough job of that.

“It can be a bunch of things like support, whether you’re running the right line and all those things. Even when you have your shots, I still feel like we’re not running those plays as well as we can.

“We’re missing the mark a little bit, but I feel like we’re so close because our attack is really good all the way down the field.

“Once we get down there, we just need to think about every play, be on for every play and execute it.”

Finals footy is looking unlikely on the back of their 1-4 start, but they could so easily have been 4-1 if they’d taken their chances as they did in the shock win over Penrith.

They face a daunting trip to Brisbane on Friday night to face the Broncos who thrashed them in round one, with Watson adamant that things will turn around.

“It’s frustrating because we should be in a better spot but we haven’t run away with games when we should have,” he said.

“But we’re also not that far away.

“We’re close so if we just keep training the way that we’ve been training and if we keep turning up to games (then we’ll be fine) because I feel like our attitude has been good.

“Not in the Broncos games because it was poor that night, but since then our attitude and effort and all that stuff has been really good.”

Originally published as Roosters players back Chad Townsend as veteran playmaker cops it for side’s poor attack