Jake Friend says defence is finally returning to their Roosters’ game

ROOSTERS captain Jake Friend believes he saw enough in their 22-20 loss to Manly last weekend to convince him the chooks are on the verge of plenty of wins.

Jake Friend during the Sydney Roosters training session at Kippax Lake Oval,Moore Park.Picture Gregg Porteous

JAKE Friend knows going into round five winless is hardly ideal, but the tricolours captain isn’t too worried.

He believes he saw enough in last week’s performance — a 22-20 loss to Manly — to convince him the chooks are on the verge of plenty of wins.

“It’s tough when you lose but last weekend [against the Sea Eagles] was a good step for us,’’ Friend said.

“While we let a few tries in our defence as a team was a lot better.

“We felt like we pressured well and it felt like that ‘Roosters defence’ was starting to come back”.

There’s no question the Roosters defence so far has been poor by their standards, especially when you consider their record since Trent Robinson took over as coach in 2013.

In that year they finished as the best defensive side in the competition, then again in 2015 and had the second-best record in season 2014.

But it’s this next statistic that really highlights how poor they have been — after conceding only 300 points over the entire 2015 season, they’ve already conceded 125 points in the first month of footy in 2016.

Jake Friend takes on North Queensland’s James Tamou.

Stats aside, Friend remained committed to the attitude which has delivered so much success to the club.

The 26-year old currently leads the league with an average of 49.8 tackles per game. He also made 42 tackles against the Sea Eagles in round four, which was more tackles than anyone else in his side.

And he knows the Roosters will again be tested on Sunday against the Warriors, in particular by former teammate Roger Tuivasa-Sheck who was an attacking dynamo while at Bondi and who is finally finding his straps at his new club.

“We’ve trained with him for a long time ... we’ve all been stepped by him at training’, Friend said with a smile.

“I think for us we need to kick well and put him in tough positions in trying to run the ball back.

“We need try and give him as little space as possible so he can’t do what he does best.

Originally published as Jake Friend says defence is finally returning to their Roosters’ game