Five Key Highlights From Round 23

Halves Turn Up the Heat

Both Sam Walker and Luke Keary began to tighten the screws early in the match, forcing two line drop outs in the first ten minutes which had the Tigers under pressure defending their own line.

This led to them striking first on the scoreboard, with Walker placing a grubber kick perfectly into the path of Nat Butcher who scored his first of four tries for the evening.

Walker finished up with two try assists whilst Keary assisted three tries and four linebreaks before being rewarded a 20-minute early mark by Coach Trent Robinson.

Back Row Barrage

After the first four tries of the game were evenly shared between Roosters back rowers Nat Butcher and Angus Crichton, their dominance didn’t end there.

Butcher went on to score four tries of his own, becoming the first forward to do so for the Tricolours since 1951.

Crichton had his own night to remember, adding an assist to his two tries as well as racking up over 200 run metres, three line breaks, eight tackle busts and four offloads.

Roosters Display Their Depth

With Paul Momirovski out of the side, the chance was given to 27-year-old Drew Hutchison to step up in the centres. He did exactly that, scoring a try and breaking the line twice as he ran for almost 100 metres.

Following Hutchison’s stint in the centres, Oliver Gildart took the field to display what he could do out wide. Gildart didn’t disappoint against his former club, assisting winger Daniel Tupou to score in the corner.

A further testament to the Club’s depth was the impeccable performances of their back rowers, as starting second rower Sitili Toupouniua is sidelined until next season with a torn ACL.

With a roster brimming with depth, the Roosters will certainly look to have a deep run to the finals as the competition quickly approaches September.

Walker Controls Game Off the Boot

The 20-year-old from Ipswich put in a masterful performance as he played a central role in the team which scored the most points by any Roosters outfit since the Eastern Suburbs tallied up 87 against Canterbury in 1935.

Walker landed an astounding twelve from twelve conversion kicks, including a few tough ones from the sideline, as he enabled the Chooks to go up in sixes all evening long.

He was their go-to man on the fifth tackle, putting boot to ball thirteen times and gaining a total of 332 kicking metres as a result.

On top of all that, both of Walker’s try assists came off his golden boot as he grubbered twice for Nat Butcher to score on the historic night.

Roosters Crowing in Lead Up to Finals

The Roosters put on a superb display of football, breaking several records in front of a multitude of the Club’s former players who showed up for Old Boys’ Day.

On the same day that their NRLW team posted up their highest ever score in a 38-16 thumping of the Parramatta Eels, the men’s side wrote their own names in the history books by scoring the most points ever at the SCG in their final game at the stadium after four years of calling it home.

It was a show of pure dominance as they held over 60% of the ball, ran twice the amount of metres that their opponents did and had a whopping thirteen line breaks compared to the Tigers’ one.

On a six-game winning streak and playing with the class that they’ve displayed, the Roosters are timing their finals run to perfection with only two rounds of the regular season to go.