NRL 2021, St George Illawarra Dragons v Sydney Roosters: All the match news and updates
James Tedesco and teenage super-sub Sam Walker took it upon themselves to get the Roosters back into the top four.
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Scintillating James Tedesco and teenage super-sub Sam Walker took it upon themselves to get the Roosters back into the top four and set up a mouth-watering showdown with arch enemies the Rabbitohs next week.
Tedesco ran riot in Toowoomba behind a pack that was brilliantly led by Jared Waerea-Hargreaves to set up three tries in the first half, and get his error riddled side home 40-22 over a Dragons outfit that now must kiss goodbye to the finals.
Walker came off the bench in the second half to set up Daniel Tupou and score the match sealing try after the Dragons had launched a stunning comeback.
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The Roosters threatened to run away with the game with Tedesco setting up tries for Egan Butcher, Dale Copley and Sitili Tupouniua and running for 191m before half-time but the Dragons, who scrambled well early, showed plenty of fight.
Josh McGuire scored on the cusp of half-time and then either side of the break Zac Lomax set up Mikaele Ravalawa and Matthew Feagai to give the Dragons a stunning 16-14 lead.
Compounding the Roosters woes, they lost Adam Keighran to concussion in the 11th minute and Nat Butcher in the 43rd to a leg injury.
Trent Robinson kept teenager Walker warm on the bench after starting with Lachlan Lam and his impact was immediate, setting up a try and then weaving his way through to score in front of the extended Walker family who hail from Toowoomba. When Tupou completed his hat-trick it was the Roosters who had sealed the comeback that counted.
Robinson said the calmness of his men when they fell behind was the key to the win.
“We’ve shown for four to six weeks that no matter the situation they have been quite good and going ‘Ok, what do we need to be better?’ The leaders spread that energy around and then the others are calm,” Robinson said.
“I was impressed with the senior guys and the younger guys.”
“I’ve got [three] good young experienced halves and I felt like today was the day for a shift to get Lachy in there. I’ll keep making a choice around that. All three of them will be playing a lot of footy.”
TEDDY AGAIN
Tedesco kept the Roosters in it with pure genius during the first half, when his side made nine errors. He now has 22 try assists for the year, bettering his previous career best of the 2018 season. He ran for 250m and made 10 tackle busts in a performance that makes the debate over the best player in the game very much alive, despite Tom Trbojevic’s feats of brilliance.
“It is a habit. It is marvellous, but it is a habit,” Robinson said of Tedesco’s continued dominance.
IN THE FIGHT
Robinson was forced to make more positional changes and the Roosters finished the game with a one-man bench. It was just another hurdle to clear.
Robinson said recently that so long as his team was “in the fight” another premiership was achievable.
“I feel like they are heavyweight fighters in our competition and we feel like we started off as lightweights ... but if we keep putting on weight each week we might get up to their division soon,” Robinson said of the looming showdown with Souths.
“Let’s see where we get on Friday night.”
They are in the fight all right despite a season from hell with injury. The Roosters are back on their own in fourth on 32 points but with the Sea Eagles just two points adrift and with a better for and against, any slip up will be fatal.
Their fate may well come down to whether Tedesco or Latrell Mitchell has the most influence on Friday night at Suncorp Stadium.
JOUSTING JARED
Waerea-Hargreaves, who had been soldiering on with a broken finger and injuries to his back and knee, returned from a week’s layoff to give the Roosters punch.
The veteran prop wears his leader of the pack mantle like a badge of honour and it was in the middle that the Roosters, courtesy of Waerea-Hargreaves and Siosiua Taukeiaho, were hungrier than their Dragons counterparts.
By half-time Waerea-Hargreaves had run for 112m, more than the three Dragons starting middles Kaide Ellis, Jack De Belin and Tariq Sims combined.
Waerea-Hargreaves was twisted in half in a tackle but Robinson said he was OK.
“Since he’s lived at Mosman he has done a lot of pilates and yoga so he is in good enough shape to bend like a pretzel. He recovered well from that,” he said.
“He assumes that [leadership] role and he does it really well.”
STUCK ON 18
The Dragons finals hopes are gone after they failed to move off 18 points following the BBQ-gate saga where too many of them behaved like 18-year-olds.
There were glimpses against the Roosters of what might have been. Lomax’s creativity, Ravalawa’s brute strength and some resilient defensive resolve at times. Too often they switched off, a problem that haunts Anthony Griffin.
Griffin said he was “really proud” of the way his side came back and not thinking about finals.
“We just dust ourselves off and get up to Rockhampton next week to play the Cowboys,” he said.
“At 16-14 we had our destiny in our own hands and we needed to finish that game off. What the miracles or equations are now I am not too concerned about.”
GRIFFIN REVEALS TRUTH ON LEADERSHIP BATTLE
— Nick Campton
St George Illawarra coach Anthony Griffin has described controversial lock Jack de Belin as a “good leader”, but didn’t consider elevating him to the captaincy.
The Dragons courted more controversy earlier this week after revelations de Belin was almost handed the captain’s armband following injuries to Andrew McCullough and Ben Hunt.
Tariq Sims was eventually given the role for Sunday’s must-win clash against Sydney Roosters.
“Tuesday afternoon we ran through a few names and (the media) made a story out of it,” Griffin said. “But Jack is a good person and a good leader in our group. Tariq Sims will be our captain tomorrow and it’s a great honour for him.
“I don’t know where the story came from. When we lost Andrew McCullough there was probably four or five guys that could be captains of the side.
“It’s a bit of a funny set up this week. You don’t often lose two captains in the space of four or five weeks. We’ve got some senior players there — Jack Bird, Jack de Belin, Josh McGuire and Tariq Sims.
“Everyone understands what’s happened over the past four or five weeks at our club. We’ve been down that road and we’ve dealt with it. The point going forward is that’s been dealt with. Tariq Sims is our captain this weekend.”
De Belin has been building steadily since his return to first grade in June and got through 80 minutes in last week’s loss to Penrith. Griffin admitted he was surprised by how quickly de Belin had found his feet after almost three seasons on the sideline.
“It was an enormous effort by him, to play 80 minutes in the middle and be as effective as he was,” Griffin said. “Considering he had almost three years out of the game his first few performances, which were only for 30 or 40 minutes, were of really high quality.
“He went through a little bit of stage there where the return to football got to him. But the last few weeks, to play at the standard he has, I’ve been really surprised and impressed.”
Griffin has recalled fullback Matt Dufty in an effort to give the Dragons some spark as they play for their premiership lives against the Tricolours.
With Bird reverting to centre, Zac Lomax hitting some form after returning from injury and the exciting Talatau Amone starting at five-eighth, the backline does look far more potent.
“He (Dufty) brings attack. That’s what we’ve brought him in for, just to give us a little bit more speed,” Griffin said.
“Birdy did a good job there for a couple of weeks but he’ll play left centre. Zac Lomax is in his third or fourth game back and he’s feeling a bit better. It gives us a bit more strike there.”
Amone scored a try and set up another in an eye-catching display during last week’s loss to Penrith and regardless of how the rest of the season shakes out his emergence is one of the club’s real positives for 2021.
“The fact he’s been able to get himself to this point, in his eighth or ninth game, it’s fantastic to see a young guy coming through like that,” Griffin said.
“In terms of getting us around the park, Corey Norman will be the main playcaller there and Junior will work off the back of that. He’s very good on his feet, what I expect from him is more of the same if he gets an opportunity — have the confidence to run the football.”
LOMAX LAUDS ‘EXCITING’ AMONE
— Michael Carayannis
A 20-minute Talatau Amone stint may have given the Dragons faithful some much-needed hope but it came as no surprise to some of his St George Illawarra teammates.
Amone lit up a lacklasture St George Illawarra side when he laid on a try and scored one of his own coming off the bench in their last-start loss to Penrith. The teenager gets an opportunity to again start in the halves on Sunday when the Dragons play the Roosters.
Teammate Zac Lomax has seen Amone’s class “on the regular”.
“He is unreal,” Lomax said. “He is going to be a special player. The best thing about him is he is such a great person and a great teammate. He loves learning and asking questions. I’m excited to see how his career goes forward.
“It gives you an insight into some of the youth we’ve got coming through.
“It’s exciting times, plus with a fair few new signings for next year. I feel the juniors that have been coming through have shown they have a lot of potential. It’s about being the best trainer and learning as much as they can and they are open to it.”
After a promising start, the Dragons are limping out the back door this season.
They are on a five-game losing streak.
Lomax’s season has mirrored St George Illawarra’s fortunes. He started the year in the best form of his career before a thumb injury coupled with a Covid-19 breach, which he did not want to get dragged back into publicly, sidelined him for three months.
“It’s been an up-and-down year for sure,” Lomax said. “We started off pretty strong. As a team there was a fair bit of change that went on over the pre-season which was good.
“We started the year off strong and went through controversy through the season and we have had a fair bit of injuries.
“I still have the confidence there. You have to get back into playing and match fitness.
“(My thumb was) a big break. I’ve done it before. I re-broke it in a different place. It was right where the joint is.”
During Lomax’s forced isolation he created a stir when he unfollowed St George Illawarra’s Instagram account.That prompted suggestions he wanted out, which was quickly refuted by the club.
“I didn’t follow any football,” Lomax said. “I just tried to be with family as much as I can.”
DRAGONS STILL STRUGGLING TO SHAKE OFF PARTY HANGOVER
— Nick Campton
It’s six weeks on from Paul Vaughan’s infamous barbecue but the Dragons are still feeling the fallout from the self-destructive evening which has all but torpedoed their finals hopes.
The Red V have lost five straight matches since Vaughan’s barbecue and tumbled down to 11th — a loss to the Roosters on Sunday will just about finish them off for 2021.
There’s been further off-field turmoil following revelations controversial forward Jack de Belin was considered as a captaincy option this week before the armband was handed to Tariq Sims.
“I didn’t know that (about de Belin), we don’t put our hands up and vote on who’s going to be captain. But he is a leader,” forward Josh Kerr said.
“Off-field dramas have inhibited that. But he is a big part of this team, he’s a great leader, someone who leads more by his actions. In the future, I definitely see him being a leader but, at the moment, I think he just needs to focus on football.”
Kerr, along with de Belin, attended Vaughan’s barbecue and was slapped with a one-match suspension and fine for breaching COVID protocols.
Managing the host of suspensions has stopped the Dragons from having any continuity in their roster and the link between the incident and the club’s recent poor form is unmistakeable.
But Kerr is adamant the Dragons are closer to righting the ship than many may think and believes the turnaround can begin against the injury-hit Tricolours after some promising signs in last week’s 34-16 loss to Penrith.
“I can’t really speak for anyone else but for me it was pretty mentally draining and a pretty depressing point a few weeks ago,” Kerr said.
“At the end of the day we just need a win to turn things around. And we’re not far off.
“Things aren’t going the way we want them to go and obviously there’s been some off-field stuff with us as well. When it rains it pours, in that sense.
“We put ourselves under so much pressure. Look at the stats about how many balls we dropped down our own end. We’re the worst team in the comp for it.
“Penrith are probably going to be in the grand final this year and we had periods where we were normal, held the ball and were aggressive and we were beating them.
“I thought we bashed them for that first half of football and they just have that habit of winning at the moment and I don’t want to say we have a habit of losing but we just make those little silly errors.”
Griffin has shuffled the deck this weekend with Matt Dufty to return at fullback and the impressive Talatau Amone to start at five-eighth.
Amone scored a try and set up another in an impressive 25-minute cameo against the Panthers and could be the spark Saints need to turn their season around.
I’m expecting him to set the field on fire,” said Amone’s childhood teammate Jayden Sullivan, who will come off the bench. “He’s a very good talent, we saw what he did in 25 minutes last week — I’m just excited to see how he does in 80.”
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