Round 11: Sydney Roosters v Brisbane preview
After a controversial weekend of football, the Sydney Roosters continue their quest for a top four spot as they take on the Brisbane Broncos.
The Sydney Cricket Ground hosts the Roosters after their convincing 14-point victory of the North Queensland Cowboys. After a quick start scoring four tries in the opening half an hour, the Roosters quickly found themselves ahead by eight points at the half time break after the Cowboys capitalised on Sitili Tupouniua's sin bin.
Despite, the comeback attempt from the Cowboys, the Roosters still showed why their one of the better teams in the competition, conceding just one try in the 70 minutes where they were able to field 13 players.
It's incredible that the Roosters are still able to play as a top five side despite all of the injuries that the side has experienced throughout the season. That's a credit to Trent Robinson and the system that he has built in Eastern Sydney, turning the Roosters into a modern-day powerhouse in similar fashion to the Melbourne Storm.
Like the Storm, the Roosters just keep rolling through the season as they comfortably beat the sides below them on the ladder. The Roosters made it seven from seven on Saturday night when it comes to beating sides below them on the ladder, whilst they sit zero from three against sides above them on the ladder.
That's the next step that the Roosters have to take if they're pushing for the premiership by the season's end. The Roosters will be aiming to extend that record to eight from eight with a victory over the Broncos on Saturday evening.
The Roosters have named an unchanged 17 from their win over the Cowboys on the weekend after Lachlan Lam successfully returned after recovering from a MCL injury.
The Broncos will be licking their wounds this week after they were dismantled by the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles on Friday night. Brisbane suffered their largest defeat against Manly as the ‘home' side piled on 50 points to the Broncos six. They struggled to keep up with Manly for much of the game and unfortunately were a massive casualty from the crackdown over the weekend as both Tyson Gamble and Jordan Riki were sent to the bin within seconds with the score at 26-6. The Sea Eagles took advantage of the numbers overlap and scored three quick tries to extend their lead.
There wasn't much the Broncos could do during that period of the match, but they could certainly put in a better opening 40 minutes against the Roosters than they did on the weekend. Conceding 20 points in the opening term isn't going to win you many games and the Broncos need to tighten up in defence if they're to trouble the Roosters at all on the weekend. The Broncos have made several changes after their humiliating loss to Manly. Anthony Milford has been dropped for the second time this season, making way for Albert Kelly's return to the NRL, having last played in 2014 for the Gold Coast Titans. Keenan Palasia will start for the suspended Jordan Riki as David Mead comes into the team for Corey Oates. Youngster Kobe Hetherington has been named on the bench for his NRL debut in place of Danny Levi.
Last meeting: Round 16 2020 - Roosters 58 Broncos 12
Who to watch: Despite the Roosters being heavily backed to win this clash, there are some decent one on one battles to occur. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves against Payne Haas will be one to keep an eye on just as Angus Crichton versus Tevita Pangai Junior will be. But as always is the case with the Roosters, the player to watch will be James Tedesco and his opposite number Jamayne Isaako. Tedesco had an outstanding performance against the Cowboys on Saturday night as assisted a try, ran for 221 metres and broke a total of 10 tackles. That was the fourth time this season that the Roosters fullback had eclipsed 200 run metres and the first time he broke 10 tackles in a match this year. His opposite number Isaako, has had some defensive lapses this season but has been one of their more exciting players in attack. The former rookie of the year has scored five tries this year, including three in his last three and is averaging just shy of 150 run metres per game, a career high. Isaako has also assisted four tries and broke the line on seven occasions, whilst continuing to be a tackle breaking machine averaging 4.1 tackle breaks per game. This'll will be an exciting clash between two of the better tackle breakers in the game.
The favourite: The Roosters are the favourite for this fixture and rightly so. The Broncos are currently sitting in 15th spot on the ladder with only two wins to their name and that'll be unlikely to change this weekend. The Roosters have beaten the Broncos in three of their last four clashes including piling on 59 and 58 points respectively in their two fixture during the 2020 season.
My tip: The Roosters are hard to go past here, and I'd expect another big performance from skipper James Tedesco and backrower Angus Crichton. Despite their injuries, the Roosters are still elite all over the park and should get the job done convincingly against a struggling Brisbane side. Sydney Roosters by 20.
