The Roosters and Eels will travel to neutral territory in Queensland on Sunday looking to qualify for the NRLW grand final when they clash in a sudden-death semi at Suncorp Stadium.
Minor premiers after going through the regular season undefeated, the Roosters will be the favourites for this encounter but face an Eels side that will be brimming with confidence following their round five win against the Broncos.
If any side knows what fourth spot is capable of in the NRLW it's the Roosters, who did the unthinkable in the 2021 competition to scrape into the finals before knocking off first and second for the trophy.
Both these sides met in round one with the Roosters racking up a comfortable win but the Eels' line-up has changed since then, particularly their halves, which has them in a far better position to challenge the defending champions.
The match is part of a quadruple-header at Suncorp Stadium with the other semi-final between Newcastle and St George Illawarra to be played earlier before the PM's XIII matches kick off later in the evening.
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The Rundown
Team news
Roosters: No late changes for the defending premiers, as star fullback Samantha Bremner and halfback Raecene McGregor return after being rested last week. Jocelyn Kelleher reverts to the bench after playing in the halves against the Titans in Round 5. Leianne Tufuga returns to the wing in place of Shannon Rose and Mya Hill-Moana starts in the front row, which bumps Kalosipani Hopoate back to the bench.
Eels: Co-captain Tiana Penitani has dropped out with a quad injury and her place in the centres is taken by Abbi Church. Kennedy Cherrington and Brooke Anderson again start at prop and hooker respectively after originally being named on the interchange, which bumps Filomina Hanisi and Seli Mailangi back to the bench. Lock Simaima Taufa is good to go after picking up an ankle injury last week, while Rima Butler joins the interchange.
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Key match-up
Keilee Joseph v Simaima Taufa: A lot of the halves and outside backs have received most of the accolades in recent weeks but both middle forwards have led the way for their sides throughout the regular season. Joseph has stepped into the lock role with ease and churns out the numbers while swinging the momentum with her hard carries. Taufa is a workhorse who is turning her mountain of work into quality and allowing her fellow forwards and halves to capitalise off the back of her carries.
Stat attack
Parramatta are completing 80% of their sets, the best rate in the competition. The difference from their round one performance against the Roosters comes down to their kicking game with over 400 kick metres per game, more than their 300 against the Tricolours in the opening round. Defensively they're aiming up more too with an average of just 17 points conceded per game since they leaked 38 to start the season.
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