Flegg Roosters Shine in 4 Pines Park Showdown

The Roosters created an early opportunity dragging Manly into touch off a kick return to receive a full set just 35 metres out from the line. Swinging the ball out the back, they found first points through Henare-Schuster who dragged two defenders across the line to open Easts’ account in the third minute.

They found more points on the restarting set, after a 40/20 attempt from Braith Alexander was batted back in-field by Manly fullback Charlie Thompson. The ball fell perfectly into the path of Kyron Fekitoa, who crossed the stripe untouched.

With Manly on the attack deep in the Tricolours’ territory, an intercept from Caleb Tohi swung momentum back in the Roosters’ favour. The Men from Bondi found the try line once again, with Fekitoa offloading to Xavier Chatfield-Mooka who dove spectacularly into the corner, giving the Roosters a 12-point lead after 15 minutes.

Manly capitalised off an error from the Roosters in the 19th minute, as hooker Gordon Chan Kum Tong sent James Uesele through a gap to score untouched. Cameron Brown converted from beside the uprights to halve Easts’ lead. 

Despite five-eighth Latu Fainu being sent to the sin bin, Manly managed to find more points when Daniel O’Donnell scooted out of dummy half and burrowed his way through the line to score. Brown converted the try to lock the game up at 12 points apiece.

The Tricolours re-claimed the lead when front rower Corey Ross fielded a towering attacking bomb, snatching the ball away from Thompson and beating the covering Manly defenders to the try line. Cassius Tia successfully converted from in front to give Easts a six-point lead heading into the break.

The Roosters picked up where they left off at the start of the second half, with Jack Smith making a blistering line break up the middle before being brought down just short of the try line.

A grubber kick into the in-goal from Benaiah Ioelu was chased down by Ross who planted the ball just short of the dead-ball line. Tia converted the try from out wide to make it 24-12.

Easts went back-to-back, finding their way up-field before poking another grubber kick into the in-goal which bounced up for Henare-Schuster to score. Tia converted to bring their points tally up to 30.

After handing possession over to Manly with an error on halfway, the Tricolours won the ball back after Tia executed a spectacular intercept from marker, before being tackled just 10 metres out from the try-line.

Two plays later, the young half showed up on the left side of the field to throw a perfect spiral pass onto the chest of Isaac Guba, who beat his opposite number to score. Tia then converted the try to give Easts a 36-12 lead with 20 minutes remaining.

The Red, White and Blue found the stripe once again just five minutes later, with Henare-Schuster breaking through the middle of the defensive line and spinning out of the final tackle to bounce over and claim his hat-trick. Tia kicked the conversion to extend the Roosters’ lead to 30.

Manly found points with a fantastic effort from Fainu, who threw a flat-footed dummy before bolting in-between two defenders to score untouched. Brown converted the try from close range to make it 42-18 with five minutes left to play.

Just two minutes later, Brown made a line break down the left edge for Manly. Off the back of momentum, Uesele charged onto the ball in the middle of the field and crashed over for a try under the posts, which was converted by Brown.

Sydney Roosters 42 (Tavita Henare-Schuster 3, Corey Ross 2, Kyron Fekitoa, Xavier Chatfield-Mooka, Isaac Guba tries, Cassius Tia 5 goals) def Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 24 (James Uesele 2, Daniel O'Donnell, Latu Fainu tries, Cameron Brown 4 goals)