The Sydney Roosters visited The Gabba to take on the Brisbane Broncos in Round 22.
Tupou Makes History
Veteran winger Daniel Tupou etched his named into Sydney Roosters folklore by becoming Easts’ all-time leading try scorer, overtaking Club legend Anthony Minichiello by scoring his 140th try in his 237th appearance for the Tricolours.
Having almost broken the record last week only to have the try disallowed by the bunker after a heart-warming team celebration, Tupou managed to find his way back to the try line for one that couldn’t be denied.
Tupou Claims Try 140 and a Club Record
All in all, he had yet another strong performance as he scored and assisted a try and ran for 153 metres – the most of any Rooster.
Bench Steps Up
With back-rower Egan Butcher forced from the field after just 12 minutes, Easts needed reinforcements to come on and fill the gap.
Rising to the occasion were Nathan Brown and Terrell May, with the latter putting in the most minutes in a match for his whole career.
Brown lifted the Tricolours in the middle of the park with a sound defensive display as he made 31 tackles with zero misses, as well as working to bring momentum to his side in attack with 68 run metres.
May had a strong 55 minutes on the field in which he covered 114 metres from 12 runs and offloaded twice, while also making 34 tackles in defence.
Keary’s Golden Boot
In what turned out to be a difficult evening for the Red, White, and Blue, Luke Keary helped produce a small silver lining by setting up two tries from kicks.
With 14 minutes left to play, an impressive attacking set from the visitors saw them cover 69 metres and create a try-scoring opportunity.
Keary’s eyes-up footy converted the opportunity into points as he put a bomb up to Daniel Tupou on the fifth tackle, with the ball falling away from the contest between himself and Selwyn Cobbo and landing in the hands of Billy Smith who crashed over.
Smith Crashes Over
Keary came up with an identical play just five minutes later, kicking on the third tackle to find Tupou on the full who crossed the stripe for his record-setting try.
Roosters Regroup in Second Half
After trailing at the break, Easts put in a determined effort in the second forty minutes to lift their game.
They managed to score their first points of the evening after failing to find the line in the first half, with two tries coming down their left edge.
Conceding a couple of rather unfortunate tries, the second half favoured the home side 12-10, which was an 18-point improvement from the first.
Big Minutes from Brandon
Starting in the hooker role, Brandon Smith put in his longest stint as a Rooster with a whopping 75 minutes of hard work through the middle.
In a particularly physical contest, Smith left his mark on the match with an impressive 118 run metres and 30 tackles.
He refused to shy away from the attacking side of the game, running from dummy half eight times for 61 metres. The crafty no. 9 also produced two offloads and six dummies to keep defenders on their toes throughout the evening.
