The Sydney Roosters have shown that finals football isn't past them despite a Jekyll and Hyde style performances as they ran out 36-18 winners over the Gold Coast Titans at Cbus Super Stadium.
Back-to-back penalties put the Roosters on the front foot and inside six minutes the visitors took an early 2-0 lead off the boot of Joseph Suaalii. The visitors then took advantage of some more ill-discipline from the home side as Egan Butcher was put through to score after James Tedesco found some space to score.
It was Tedesco and Butcher who combined again but this time it was Egan Butcher who put Tedesco through after the Roosters second rower went through some soft defence before finding Tedesco who was backing up to score.
The points continued to flow for the visitors in the opening 40 as Suaalii flew high in the air and was unstoppable as he plucked the ball out of thin air before getting to ground and scored. The only blight on his book for the game was the fact that he couldn't convert his own try.
Another two minute burst from the Roosters extended their lead to 30-0 when Lindsay Collins and Nat Butcher were both able to get over after some swift work from both Joey Manu and James Tedesco respectively.
The Roosters looked as if their second half was going to be a repeat of the first half as they continued their scoring rampage as Fletcher Baker went over after Joey Manu offloaded the ball after jumping high.
Things came to a scoring halt for the Roosters whether by design or just what worked started to not work and it was a late raid for the Titans that got things close after Brian Kelly went over at close range despite being denied at first.
The Titans then added two more tries late in the contest as Chris Randall who had a strong game went over then inside the last 90 seconds Erin Clark went over. Jayden Campbell converted all three for a 36-18 defeat.
Next weekend, the Titans play host to an in-form Cowboys side, whilst Roosters take on the Broncos at the GABBA.