Roosters v Tigers: young halves Luke Brooks and Mitch Moses monstered by giant Chooks

THERE was talk the Sydney Roosters would play a physical game and direct plenty of traffic at the Wests Tigers’ young halves — and that’s exactly what happened.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MAY 08: Mitchell Moses of the Wests Tigers tackles Boyd Cordner of the Roosters during the round nine NRL match between the Sydney Roosters and the Wests Tigers at Allianz Stadium on May 8, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

THERE was talk the Sydney Roosters would play a physical game and direct plenty of traffic at the Wests Tigers’ young halves — and that’s exactly what happened.

Luke Brooks and Mitch Moses were forced to make 45 tackles between them last night as the Roosters did their best to bash them out of the game.

Boyd Cordner run hard all night at five-eighth Moses on the left edge, while Aidan Guerra kept lining up Brooks on the right.

You have to wonder how many more rival teams will adopt the Roosters’ blueprint and make the Tigers’ No. 6 and No. 7 work overtime in defence.

HAVE ROOSTERS’ HALVES PICKED THEMSELVES FOR BLUES?

Mitchell Moses is steamrolled by Roosters enforcer Boyd Cordner.

Matty Johns was one expert who anticipated what would happen to Brooks and Moses when he wrote about it in his Friday column for The Daily Telegraph.

Tigers coach Jason Taylor, however, said while there were a lot of things his side hadn’t done well, the defence of his 20-year-old halves was not an issue.

“I’ve said this a couple of times and I stand by it, I’m still not overly concerned that’s our biggest area,’’ Taylor said.

“Those guys will struggle on the back of us not handling teams in the middle of the field, and that’s what happened tonight.

“By the time Boyd Cordner got one-on-one with Mitch Moses (for a try), we hadn’t done anywhere near the job we needed to do on that set defensively, and that started in the middle of the field.

“Those guys are working hard, and will continue to work hard to improve with what they’re doing there, but anyone who thinks that’s our problem — or anyone thinks that’s why we lost tonight — they’re not right in my opinion.’’

Brooks missed more tackles than any other player last season, but really tightened up that area this year. He missed one tackle last night, while Moses missed five.

To be fair, Roosters’ halves Mitchell Pearce and James Maloney made 16 fewer tackles, but botched just as many attempts.

Taylor knew the Roosters’ game was going to be a huge test, and reminded his players of that very fact beforehand. He was glad they didn’t spit the dummy in what looked like being a good old-fashioned thumping at half-time.

“That game could have ended up a game where in the second half the players are standing behind our goal-line regularly, not talking to each other, looking like it’s the end of the world, but it never went that way, and there was some great fight from the guys to make sure that didn’t happen,’’ Taylor said.

The Tigers had no excuses last night. Their young squad will be better for the big occasion against what Taylor — and most of the NRL already knows — are genuine title contenders.

They were unlucky to go behind after five minutes when Daniel Tupou’s first try came from a forward pass. And Chris Lawrence should have had a try when he stripped the ball from Mitch Aubusson.

Originally published as Roosters v Tigers: young halves Luke Brooks and Mitch Moses monstered by giant Chooks