The Sydney Roosters have been forced to overcome a poor start to dominate the Newcastle Knights 28-8 at a windy Sunshine Coast Stadium.
Starting quickly, the Newcastle Knights were able to take advantage of good field position as Jacob Safiti was too strong for the Roosters defence and crashed over from close range. The Knights crossed again soon after only for the bunker to knock it back with Kalyn Ponga ruled to have knocked on in the lead up after a Roosters touch.
The Knights were able to extend their lead out to 8-0 on the 20 minute mark when Jake Clifford slotted a penalty after the Roosters were penalised for being offside.
Despite injuries afflicting the Roosters again, they found something through James Tedesco and it became a long night for the Knights as the Bondi men found for late in the first half. Sitili Tupouniua opened the scoring first for the Roosters after they used quick hands to spread the ball out wide and the big man had too much strength close to the line and scored
The Roosters added their second of the night through Joey Manu after the Knights defence was caught rushing in after Drew Hutchinson ran the ball on the last before spreading it wide to Joey Manu who scored outwide. James Tedesco added his first conversion on a difficult night for kickers and the Roosters took a 10-8 lead.
Desperate defence from Newcastle saw them trying to cling onto the game but the Roosters were too strong and Daniel Tupou took advantage of the Knights defence failing to scramble and Tupou was able to stroll over from wide out.
The wide defensive issues for the Knights continued as Lachlan Lam strolled over wide out after the Newcastle defence rushed in and left multiple players unmarked which Lam took advantage of and scored. The Roosters and in particular James Tedesco dominated and a trademark burst through the middle of the park opened up space for Stili Tupouniua to go through and score for the Tricolours. A rare close conversion meant that James Tedesco slotted just his second goal of the night on a tricky night for the kickers.
The Roosters added one more try and again it was off the back of a burst from Teddy that put through Angus Crichton who found Tedesco who in turn gave the ball back to Crichton to score out wide. Sam Walker missed his only attempt of the night but it wasn't a major impact on the game.
Next week, the Roosters take on the Eels whilst the Knights play "host" to the Raiders at Suncorp Stadium.