Roosters vow to keep emotions in check for their rematch with Jai Arrow

The Sydney Roosters have vowed to control their emotions as they prepare for their rematch with South Sydney and Jai Arrow.

South Sydney’s Jai Arrow is enemy No.1 for the Sydney Roosters

The Sydney Roosters have spoken about controlling their emotions as they prepare for a rematch with South Sydney and enemy No.1 Jai Arrow.

The last time the sides met in round three, Arrow was a target for fired-up Roosters players as they sought revenge for his shot on James Tedesco in last year’s State of Origin series.

It ended up coming back to bite the Roosters on the backside — young forward Daniel Suluka-Fifita was sent to the sin bin for punching Arrow as the Roosters were soundly beaten.

The sides will meet on Friday night for the first time since that night and Tedesco insisted there had been no talk about Arrow, only on keeping their emotions in check.

“I forgot all about that actually,” Tedesco said. “There’s definitely been no focal point about him (Arrow) this week. Obviously there was a bit from what happened last year (in Origin), and the boys took that personal.

“It bit us in the backside when we had someone sin-binned. A big focus has been to not play with emotion, it has got the best of us sometimes … for us it’s about getting the job done with no emotion attached and doing what we have to do.”

Asked whether he thought Souths got the better of that duel, Rabbitohs captain Adam Reynolds said: “We got a penalty for it — one of their blokes sitting in the bin for 10 minutes.

“We obviously got the upper hand in that way. For us it was about moving on and doing our job. I don’t know if they were too stuck in the moment or focused on getting Jai.

“I don’t know what they are going to do or how they are going to come (on Friday night). We got a bit of joy off that last time. You never know.

“They are a pretty physical team, the Roosters, they like to match it with you in the middle. I expect it to be no different.”

While Suluka-Fifita landed the most high-profile shot on Arrow, he wasn’t the only Roosters player to pursue the Souths backrower.

Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves hunted Arrow as well and he will be integral on Friday night given the way he has led the forward pack this season.

“Jared fires up quite a bit,” Tedesco said. “It’s not abnormal for him to get angry or aggressive, that’s his natural nature on the field.

“I don’t think we’ll see anything like that, it will be the natural competition between us and Souths, which is the main feature every game.

“He (JWH) has been awesome. He’s been the leader of the pack and week in week out he gives it his all, he’ll play 80 minutes some games, the work rate he gets through, you forget how old and experienced he is, he just brings it every week.

“He’s a true leader and everyone wants to play next to Jared.”

The Roosters are a different side to the outfit that lost to their bitter rivals in round three. That was the night when halfback Luke Keary suffered a season-ending knee injury and there has been a succession of casualties since.

Keary’s absence cleared the way for teenager Sam Walker to make his debut and he has been a standout in his rookie year, winning plaudits for the way he has handled his ascent to the NRL.

Reynolds is among the admirers. “He is a talented kid with a big future in the game,” Reynolds said.

“Pretty courageous what he has been through this year already. For an 18-year-old to step up like he has, it has been pretty good to watch.

“I have nothing but praise for the kid. He has a big future in the game. He is exciting to watch.”