A hat-trick from returning NSW debutant Daniel Tupou has provided tonic for tired eyes in the Roosters' otherwise dour 26-12 defeat of the Raiders at Allianz Stadium.
Tupou appears to have grown a couple of inches on the back of his first interstate contest, a scary prospect given the Beralla Bears junior already stands at 195 centimetres. He was in the thick of it running for more than 100 metres in the opening stanza, as well as crossing for the premiers opening two tries, before bagging the second treble of his career with another four-pointer on the hour mark.
Meanwhile, the Raiders' season is now officially on life support as they slumped to their eighth defeat. They will likely find themselves six points adrift of the top eight by the end of Round 12.
Clearly targeting a Raiders right edge that has possessed the structural integrity of a Mr Potato Head doll this season, Tupou was in again from a Maloney cut-out ball for his seventh try of the year at the 19-minute mark.
With the Roosters setting up camp in Raiders territory it was but a matter of time until the Green wall cracked. For their third try the premiers again went to their left edge, though Maloney didn't need to send the ball further, strolling through a gap the size of a small house seven minutes out from half-time to extend the Chooks' advantage to 18.
The second 40 started with the ball seemingly swapped for a cake of soap, with errors from both sides testing the patience of the 11,815 crowd, before Tupou never looked like doing anything but scoring as he flew high to pluck another Maloney cross-field kick from the air and put the match out of the Raiders' reach in the 58th minute.
It took 65 minutes - and as has been the case for much of the year, a bit of brilliance from departing Raiders fullback Anthony Milford - for Ricky Stuart's men to trouble the scorers. Jack Wighton was the benefactor of a hop-skip-and-jump move from Milford, who offloaded in traffic close to the Roosters' line for the try assist.
With the match meandering and both sides having tries disallowed, to Sam Moa and Jarrod Croker, Canberra reserve prop Paul Vaughan crashed through the Roosters left-edge defence late in proceedings to record his fifth try of the year. Yet it was a case of far too little too late as the Raiders left Allianz Stadium winless for the 16th time in their last 17 visits.
Sydney Roosters 26 (D Tupou 3 tries, J Maloney; J Maloney 5 goals) defeated Canberra Raiders 12 (P Vaughan, A Mil ford tries; J Croker 2 goals) at Allianz Stadium. Crowd: 11,815.
Tupou appears to have grown a couple of inches on the back of his first interstate contest, a scary prospect given the Beralla Bears junior already stands at 195 centimetres. He was in the thick of it running for more than 100 metres in the opening stanza, as well as crossing for the premiers opening two tries, before bagging the second treble of his career with another four-pointer on the hour mark.
- Roosters still searching for ruthless streak
- Pep talk spurs Tupou to hat-trick
- Stuart laments 'little' things in Raiders loss
- WATCH: Full Roosters v Raiders highlights
- WATCH: Maloney strolls through untouched to score
- WATCH: Roosters press conference
- WATCH: Raiders press conference
Meanwhile, the Raiders' season is now officially on life support as they slumped to their eighth defeat. They will likely find themselves six points adrift of the top eight by the end of Round 12.
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Clearly targeting a Raiders right edge that has possessed the structural integrity of a Mr Potato Head doll this season, Tupou was in again from a Maloney cut-out ball for his seventh try of the year at the 19-minute mark.
With the Roosters setting up camp in Raiders territory it was but a matter of time until the Green wall cracked. For their third try the premiers again went to their left edge, though Maloney didn't need to send the ball further, strolling through a gap the size of a small house seven minutes out from half-time to extend the Chooks' advantage to 18.
The second 40 started with the ball seemingly swapped for a cake of soap, with errors from both sides testing the patience of the 11,815 crowd, before Tupou never looked like doing anything but scoring as he flew high to pluck another Maloney cross-field kick from the air and put the match out of the Raiders' reach in the 58th minute.
It took 65 minutes - and as has been the case for much of the year, a bit of brilliance from departing Raiders fullback Anthony Milford - for Ricky Stuart's men to trouble the scorers. Jack Wighton was the benefactor of a hop-skip-and-jump move from Milford, who offloaded in traffic close to the Roosters' line for the try assist.
With the match meandering and both sides having tries disallowed, to Sam Moa and Jarrod Croker, Canberra reserve prop Paul Vaughan crashed through the Roosters left-edge defence late in proceedings to record his fifth try of the year. Yet it was a case of far too little too late as the Raiders left Allianz Stadium winless for the 16th time in their last 17 visits.
Sydney Roosters 26 (D Tupou 3 tries, J Maloney; J Maloney 5 goals) defeated Canberra Raiders 12 (P Vaughan, A Mil ford tries; J Croker 2 goals) at Allianz Stadium. Crowd: 11,815.