Roosters book prelim ticket by mauling Sharks
George Clarke |
The Sydney Roosters are 80 minutes away from their first NRL grand final in seven years after fighting past Cronulla in a 46-10 semi-final win.
Trent Robinson’s men will play the Dolphins in a preliminary final after being made to work for victory against the Sharks at Allianz Stadium.
Halfback Daly Cherry-Evans was placed on report for tripping Cronulla’s Teig Wilton on Saturday and, aside from the fitness of Sam Walker, is likely to be the only question mark heading into next Friday’s meeting with the Dolphins.
Queensland No.7 Walker underwent ankle surgery less than a month ago but is said to be making promising progress.
Just as everything fell into place for the Roosters, who also welcomed back Angus Crichton from a long injury lay-off on Saturday, just about everything fell apart for Cronulla.
Halfback Nicho Hynes failed a head injury assessment after copping a bang en route to Lindsay Collins’ second-minute opening try.
And then centre Mawene Hiroti went off with a knee injury after 20 minutes after crashing into the advertising hoardings.
It was little wonder the Roosters put a depleted Sharks outfit to the sword, piling on 24 points in the final half an hour.
Hynes’ exit forced Cronulla into a reshuffle with Braydon Trindall shifting to the right edge to accommodate the introduction of Niwhai Puru.
The two new Cronulla halves had barely drawn breath when the Roosters added a second as Daniel Tupou climbed above Sione Katoa to dot down and give the Roosters a 12-0 inside 10 minutes.
Trindall dragged Cronulla back into the game, slinging the ball to the right where Katoa finished in the corner in the 22nd minute.
Trindall couldn’t land the conversion but made amends on the Sharks’ next attacking raid when Siosifa Talakai backed up a Blayke Brailey break.
Talakai was brought to ground by James Tedesco but against a broken defence, Trindall found Ronaldo Mulitalo who barged his way over the line.
The Sharks only trailed by two after Trindall added the extras but Cherry-Evans poked his way over to give the Roosters a 18-10 halftime lead.
Cronulla had their chances to cut the deficit early in the second half but Trindall gifted the Roosters’ two seven-tackle sets and the pressure eventually tolled.
Cronulla had kept Mark Nawaqanitawase muzzled for most of Saturday’s final but the rugby-bound winger produced another moment of magic to pull the Roosters out of sight.
Nawaqanitawase had a behind-the-back offload that was handled by five separate Roosters players before Connor Watson put on some footwork and charged in to score.
Wilton had a try chalked off for a double movement after he was tripped by Cherry-Evans and Trindall dropped one with the line beckoning.
Those hammerblows knocked the wind out of Cronulla’s sails and from there it was a procession for the Roosters.
Nawaqanitawase grabbed a double as Tedesco and Rob Toia also crossed in the final 20 minutes.
Five-eighth Hugo Savala kicked seven of his eight conversion attempts.
AAP