Roosters v Wests Tigers preview

[Guest]

Roosters v Wests Tigers preview

Wed 06 May, 2015, 12:00pm
By Chris Kennedy, National Correspondent, NRL.com

Sydney Roosters v Wests Tigers
Allianz Stadium
Friday 7.35pm

With most players rested and refreshed after a week off for Representative Round – and the remainder needing to pick themselves up quick smart after the adrenaline of a thrilling win or the letdown of an agonising loss – the regular NRL battles resume.

And Round 9 kicks off with a belter of a Sydney derby at Allianz Stadium where a Roosters side that has looked pretty good for most of the year amazingly comes in on the back of four straight losses with an unexpected 12th-place ladder ranking.

The visitors are surprise packets Wests Tigers, up in fifth having bounced back from two worrying losses with a strong win over the Bulldogs in Round 8.

It's a measure both of how close the competition is and how different our pre-season expectations were of these two sides that the Tigers are going "surprisingly well" and the Roosters are in strife, yet the seven ladder places between them are made up of just two competition points. With a win here – of any margin – the Roosters will jump ahead of the Tigers on the ladder.

The Roosters welcome back Aidan Guerra and Mitchell Aubusson, with Willie Manu and Lagi Setu dropping out.

The Tigers have moved Chris Lawrence to the centres for the injured Tim Simona, while Keith Galloway is back at prop shifting Sauaso Sue to the bench and Jack Buchanan out of the side.

Watch out Roosters: The brilliant but previously injury-prone James Tedesco has added much-needed consistency to his game this year and has been one of the form players right across the NRL. He is the competition's new tackle-busting specialist, having broken 43 tackles in eight games – well clear of second-placed Dane Gagai (36). Tedesco's combination with young halfback Luke Brooks is flourishing and the platform being laid by a pretty impressive forward pack is giving him plenty of room to move.

Watch out Wests Tigers: The Roosters are a far better side than their 3-5 record and 12th place on the ladder indicate. They just have to click sooner rather than later. Their sizeable Kiwi contingent –Sam Moa, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Shaun Kenny-Dowall – will be pumped after a big win over the Kangaroos, but it's the halves who look to pose the biggest threat. Origin hopefuls James Maloney and Mitch Pearce have every reason to put in a big showing here; Pearce is surging towards and Origin recall and Maloney is coming off arguably his best game of the year after three try assists in Country's win over City.

Key Match-Up: Roger Tuivasa-Sheck v James Tedesco. In terms of speed, footwork, evasiveness, support play and scintillating broken play running it doesn't get much more exciting than these two. The Roosters halves will need to do their best to keep the ball away from Tedesco to limit his effectiveness on kick returns while the Tigers forwards will need to muscle up to stop the Tricolours pack laying Tuivasa-Sheck a golden platform. Tedesco, as mentioned, leads the league for tackle breaks while his opposite is running for a staggering 235 metres per game – easily the best in the competition in any position.

The History: Played 25, Roosters 17, Tigers 8\. The merged club has bested the Tricolours just once in the past 10 meetings. They have also sung the team song on just one of their past 10 visits to Allianz; only three of those were against the Roosters, the others were to Souths (twice), Canterbury, Cronulla, Brisbane and the Warriors.

What Are The Odds: Roosters $1.33 v Tigers $3.10\. The Tigers have firmed from Sportsbet's opening quote of $3.30 on the back of an incredible seven times the money being placed on them by punters in head-to-head betting. The Tigers have been very well backed at the line as well. Latest odds at Sportsbet.com.au

Match Officials: Jared Maxwell & Chris James; Touch Judges: Jeff Younis & Brett Suttor; Video Referees: Steve Chiddy & Luke Patton.

Televised: Channel Nine, Live, 7.30pm (NSW); Delayed, 9.30pm (QLD).

The Way We See It: The Roosters have to come good at some point – is this the week? We don't think the Tigers deserve to be the significant outsiders the bookies have them as, but having said that we can't quite see the Roosters going five games without a win. The home side by four.

 

[Juro]

I'm hardly surprised money has been put on us at those odds. We may not deserved to be favourites, but we're definitely in with some chance of winning.

 

[TrueTiger]

Well Willow,I can understand the support for the Rorters,they definately dont want to lose five in a row,having said that our young team is starting to gel very well and it wouldnt surprise me and maybe some others on here that the boys could come out firing and staying on top of the Roosters,even though their team looks awesome on paper…Either way it will be a great game,hopefully our fellas will come out with the points..and I think they will....

 

[greatodensraven]

Nobody expects us to win. What else is new.

I'm looking forward to seeing what our lads can do against a big-name team who will have various points to prove. We haven't been able to compete with them for a few years now, but I think the Tigers of 2015 are most likely to do so.

 

[sheer64]

😛ray: Only way I can see us winning this is if Brooks and Moses decide they want to make Pearce and Maloney look like a pair of old plodders. 😛ray:

 

[Tigermama]

It would be great to beat the Roosters. Is it too much to hope for. I don't think so. We're in with a chance. Shame Simona's injured though. We sure could use him. Won't be watching the game live as we're going to a B/ day party, but will definitely record the game.
Not quite the same as watching it live though. Good luck boys. :sign:

 

[Juro]

Just wonder which team will win the penalty count. We're 2 of the most penalised in the comp, right?

 

[Sabre]

We are wearing the Heritage jersey tonight for the first time.

 

[simonthetiger]

oh 05 yay!

_Posted using RoarFEED Android 1.2.3_

 

[Newtown]

😛ray: Only way I can see us winning this is if Brooks and Moses decide they want to make Pearce and Maloney look like a pair of old plodders. 😛ray:

The success of Brooks and Moses will depend upon our forwards and their desire to protect these little guys from being pummelled in tackles from Rooster's big forwards. I can't forget that tackle on Brooks from Sia Soliola when Wests Tigers were up a huge score to nil midway through the match against Raiders. After that hit Wests Tigers didn't score a solitary point and Raiders went on to win very easily. I hope Taylor has a plan.

 

[Tigerdon]

from SMH.com
**Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson urges halves to put aside State of Origin selection thoughts**
Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson will not use the opening State of Origin match on May 27 as a means to motivate his halves pairing of Mitchell Pearce and James Maloney in Friday's match against the Wests Tigers.

"Definitely not," said Robinson when asked if he planned to use the NSW jerseys the pair lost last season as a lure. "That's stuff that is definitely out of my control and even out of their control.

"They can understand how they play [on Friday night] affects that, so that's what they've got to do, they've got to play well for the Roosters and play well as a half and five-eighth, and the rest of the things will come on top of that.

"We haven't even discussed that; haven't gone near that. Some good halfback and five-eighth play is what we're looking for from them."

Robinson said the pair had played good football since losing their state spots to Canterbury's combination of Trent Hodkinson and Josh Reynolds in last year's Blues triumph.

"They're good people, they've grown a lot," he said. "[Pearce] was made captain, I think we saw last weekend [Maloney] as a leader of Country and the way he played was impressive.

"They're good guys and playing good footy, but as a club we can play better footy and that's what we're trying to focus on against the Tigers."

The star-studded Roosters, who are ninth on the premiership ladder, expect an even tougher night against the fifth-placed Tigers because they are being coached by Jason Taylor – or "JT" – who, until last season, was Robinson's trusted assistant.

"He'll know a fair bit of the way we play, and we can see a lot of what we've done in the way they're playing," Robinson said of Taylor.

"There's a lot on that side, but after that it's about who brings a lot of energy to the game and who wants to go after it most.

"There's [secrets] between coaches. Everybody has their own method and their own philosophy and sometimes you can work that out and sometimes you don't know why a team plays the way they do or what's different.

"Obviously JT and I have worked closely together, so we know each other personally and as good mates, and that makes that side of it less intriguing from our point of view.

"But people evolve and that's probably happened in the last six months, so there'll be some slight differences that we don't know about. We can't worry about Wests Tigers too much, we've been playing OK footy and we've got to improve how we play."

While Taylor scuttled a suggestion by Roosters great Anthony Minichiello that Tigers fullback James Tedesco ought to be considered for NSW, Robinson conceded the 22-year-old was in great form.

"He's played some good footy and I think we all knew he could, it was just about staying on the field," he said. "The way he's playing, if he's called up [for NSW] he'll do a good job.