The Sydney Roosters have beaten the St George Illawarra Dragons 30-22 at Allianz Stadium
ROGER Tuivasa-Sheck has produced a tackle that not only helped the Roosters beat the Dragons but could go down as the play that saves their season.
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IT could go down as the tackle that saves the Roosters season.
With a spot in the top four at stake, Roosters flyer Roger Tuivasa-Sheck produced a copybook ball-and-all play on a flying Brett Morris.
Clinging to an 18-10 lead with 26 minutes remaining, St George Illawarra appeared certain to score and continue applying the blow torch to the premiers.
Enter RTS. The collision was actually more SBW or Frank-Paul Nuuausala than the Kiwi Test winger renowned for his lightning flash, Fred Astaire footwork.
Tuivasa-Sheck wrapped himself around Morris the same way Morris wrapped himself around Darius Boyd in this year’s State of Origin series, allowing the Roosters to march back upfield and put the game beyond doubt.
“That was a huge play for us. They skinned us for numbers a bit and then Morris, he’s obviously one of the best wingers in the game,” Robinson said.
“He scores those tries. It was a great defensive play from Roger. They’re the matchwinners for us.
“He did a really good job there and also Shaun Kenny-Dowall came up with a really big play on that right edge as well.
“They’re really important moments in a team to come up with those. We’ve probably had less than more of those lately but I thought we had quite a few moments tonight where the guys came up with big defensive plays.”
The victory means the premiers will finish this weekend inside the top four, while the Dragons have missed a shot at moving into the top eight.
The only sour note for the Roosters was a high shot from prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves on Dragons opposite Mike Cooper, who was forced off to complete a concussion test late in the second half while JWH was placed on report.
“I don’t think they were worried about it and then when he was down for a bit longer they went back and put it on report. I don’t think it was an initial sort of calling out so I’m not too worried,” Robinson said.
Despite being beaten with a 55 per cent possession statistic, the Dragons continue to evolve under caretaker coach Paul McGreggor and threw plenty of hard questions at the Roosters.
Since taking over from Steve Price mid-season, McGreggor has mounted an extremely strong case to be appointed head coach next year, as evidenced in the improvement on Saturday night compared to the Anzac Day massacre.
In the end it was five-tries-to-four, with the Red V scoring late tries through Benji Marshall and Josh Dugan.
“We didn’t win enough field position to win the game. We were coming out of our own end a lot and their kicking game to ours was the difference between a win and a loss,” McGreggor said.
“Simple as that. At times we played too lateral too. We didn’t earn the right. We tried to go around them before going through them but it just comes back to field position.”
The Roosters welcomed the return of the speed and finesse of Michael Jennings on the left edge, who bagged a pair of tries in a sharp display.
Otherwise, Aiden Guerra, Nene McDonald and Jake Friend scored for the Tricolours. For St George Illawarra, Brett Morris, Joel Thompson, Benji Marshall and Josh Dugan all crossed for tries.
The premiers will face the Titans, Tigers, Warriors, Storm and South Sydney leading into the finals while the Dragons meet Penrith, Canberra, Gold Coast, Brisbane and Newcastle.
Fulltime SYDNEY ROOSTERS 30 (M Jennings 2 J Friend A Guerra N MacDonald tries J Maloney 5 goals) bt ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 22 (J Dugan B Marshall B Morris J Thompson tries G Widdop 3 goals) at Allianz Stadium. Referee: Shayne Hayne, Grant Atkins. Crowd: 13,083.
Originally published as The Sydney Roosters have beaten the St George Illawarra Dragons 30-22 at Allianz Stadium
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