Roosters take minor premiership with Eels thrashing

Embed from Getty Images

Parramatta Eels v Sydney Roosters

The Sydney Roosters have secured the NRL minor premiership and confirmed the wooden spoon for Parramatta after a superb 44-10 victory at ANZ Stadium in front of 11,543 fans.

The Roosters came into the game with a hope of taking the minor premiership after the Storm's slip up against the Panthers last night. The Roosters needed to ensure that they firstly won the game but then also win by more than 27 to take the JJ Giltinan shield.

The Roosters started the game off strongly when they scored the opening try after just five minutes when the Roosters stacked the right side in attack and Joseph Manu strolled through for the opening try. Latrell Mitchell's conversion put the Roosters ahead six nil. The Roosters then got a string of penalties and Mitchell put the Roosters out beyond a converted try when he put the penalty goal through in front of the posts.

The game became a stalemate for the next fifteen minutes until Blake Ferguson added the Roosters second of the game when again the Roosters stacked the right hand side and the Parramatta defence couldn't hold their line and Blake Ferguson scored in the corner. The conversion from Mitchell was dead straight and the Roosters went out to a 14-0 lead. 

The Eels then put the game back in the balance on the stroke of halftime when veteran David Gower was able to break through the middle of the park through some flimsy Roosters defence before finding Jarryd Hayne who scored an easy try under the sticks.

The second half started with the Roosters going seventy metres within three plays but they couldn't turn it into points when Tedesco slipped and knocked the ball on with the line wide open.  The warning signs were there for the Eels but again the right hand defence was caught out by some good Roosters attack when Blake Ferguson strolled over for his second of the night after a lovely floated pass from Luke Keary. Mitchell's conversion put them out to a 14 point lead.

The Eels capitalised on some luck when Bevan French picked up a sloppy offload from Boyd Cordner and French ran 80m to score the Eels only second half try. 

The floodgates began to open for the Roosters when Mitch Moses was put into the sin bin for taking out Luke Keary who was chasing through in support on a break by Tedesco. During the time of the sin bin the Roosters scored two tries through Daniel Tupou and Mitchell who were able to get on the outside of the Eels defence and stroll over.

If things hadn't gone from bad to worse for the Eels they quickly did when Michael Jennings was given his own 10 minute stint off the field when he made a tackle in an offside position after Boyd Cordner took a quick tap. The eleven man defensive line had no answers when Mitchell strolled over in empty space and the Roosters had their third try in the space of ten minutes.

The Roosters finished the game off with two tries in the last fifteen minutes with Mitchell getting his third down the left whilst Tedesco scored under the sticks after some good work out of dummy half by Jake Friend.

Next weekend, the Roosters get a home semi next week which will be most likely against the Sharks, whilst the Eels will look ahead to the trials and Round 1 of 2019, their season ending with a wooden spoon heading to Parramatta.