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The Storm's tight Day One defence was cracked wide open as a Roosters side with nothing to lose tormented the men in purple with their restarts to hammer a 26-7 win.

Form man Blake Green kicked his second 40/20 of the tournament to put his side on attack early but a Mark Nicholls drop went to Latrell Mitchell. The youngster burned Richie Kennar and Dale Finucane to streak 90 metres to score under the posts for his fourth try of the weekend so far.

With both sides' defence edging their attack, that was the only score of the first half but a fumbled kick by Omar Slaimankhel early in the second allowed Kennar to stroll over under the posts to level up at seven-all.

It was all the Roosters from that point; first some evasive running by Shaun Kenny-Dowall set up a wonderful leaping try in the corner to Joseph Manu. When Tyler Cornish cleverly found touch from the restart Vincent Leuluai carried four defenders over the line for a 15-7 lead. The Roosters again regained possession from the restart when Braith Anasta drilled it down the middle across the dead ball line and a no-look flick from Ian Henderson set up a Connor Watson four-pointer.

A carbon copy restart from Anasta heaped the pressure on the Roosters and this time Henderson was again provider for Nat Butcher's try under the posts and a rousing 26-7 win.

Sydney Roosters Nines captain Anasta believes the club has done everyone proud, despite being the first team eliminated from the tournament.

"We very unlucky the first two games – we probably should have won them all. So it was a big effort for all the young blokes because it's been a big couple of days," Anasta told NRL.com. 

"It's really good for them, but it's all real good for the older blokes back home watching because they know these kids are coming through and can do a job for them. We wanted to make everyone back home proud and I think we did."

A returning legend for the Nines, Anasta struggled to get out of bed after Saturday's proceedings.

"When I woke up this morning I was like 'how am I going to do this?'," he said. 

"But when you get out there the adrenalin takes over and everything was alright.  I felt good."

Storm's Kenny Bromwich was rested for the loss against the Roosters but Kenny Bromwich said their defeat won't factor into how they approach the quarter finals.

"Hopefully we can put forward a better performance than what we dished up then. I don't think the loss will factor into our performance so far at the tournament," Bromwich told NRL.com.

"We'll just let that one go and focus on what's to come next. I think we have been a bit of a surprise package so far, people didn't expect us to go as well as we have."

Sydney Roosters26  (Mitchell, Manu, Leuluai, Watson, Butcher) def Melbourne Storm 7 (Kennar)

 

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