Sydney Roosters have stormed home with four unanswered second-half tries to recover from a 16 point-deficit and turn the tables on Cronulla Sharks and claim a 34-22 win at Optus Stadium.
The Sharks looked like they were cruising to victory when they snared the first three tries of the games with the Roosters struggling to establish a rhythm early.
But the script was flipped in the second half as the Roosters’ stars came to the fore, while Cronulla looked a shadow of their first-half selves.
After Daly Cherry-Evans got an early Sydney try to mow into the margin, the Roosters turned the screws as the game progressed, culminating in three tries in the final quarter of an hour.
Cronulla got the ball rolling inside seven minutes when a fumble by James Tedesco of all people allowed Sione Katoa to break away and a few phases later, Jesse Colquhoun opened the scoring and everything was going their way when they doubled their lead inside 10 minutes when Nicho Hynes’ pass was tipped into the grateful hands of Mawene Hiroti.
When Braydon Trindall added another to make it 16-0, it looked like it would be a long afternoon for the Roosters.
Sam Walker cut into the deficit after a well-worked move down Sydney’s left wing, and they thought they had further cut the deficit when Robert Toia took advantage of KL Iro’s inability to deal with a high ball inside the 20.
However, the bunker had other ideas and scrubbed out the try after deeming Toia had caught Iro in the air and Cronulla added insult to within a few minutes when Oregon Kaufusi drew multiple defenders close to the goal line and his quick pop pass ended with Tom Hazleton crossing.
Sydney managed to hit back on the cusp of the break when Sam Walker’s excellent kick landed in Daniel Tupou’s arms to make it 22-12 at half-time.
Whatever Roosters coach Trent Robinson said in the sheds at half-time, it worked as Sydney came out for the second half with renewed vigour.
Cherry-Evans was the beneficiary of an inability from Cronulla to deal with his own kick as it landed back in his lap to make it a four-point game as his side turned up the pressure.
And they levelled the scores with in the 65th minute when Tupou placed the ball in the corner, although Walker’s missed conversion prevented Sydney from taking the lead.
It did not matter, however; four minutes later, the Roosters stars’ aligned as Tedesco freed his arms in a tackle to feed Mark Nawaqanitawase and his offload was run home by Cherry-Evans, before Victor Radley’s try four minutes from time put the result beyond doubt.
