Roosters Downed By Bears in Historic Matchup

Jaxson Paulo’s short kick-off attempt fell into North Sydney hands, putting the Roosters under some early pressure. Fortunately, their strong defence turned the home side away.

With the Bears looking threatening on the attack, they seemed likely to score as Toa Mata’afa made a determined run to the corner, but Tavita Henare-Schuster delivered a heavy tackle in his NSW Cup debut to bundle him over the sideline.

Making their way upfield, the Tricolours opened the scoring with a perfectly executed left edge play as back rower Riley Meyn exploded through a gap and found Corey Allan looming in support on his inside. Paulo converted from in front for a six-point advantage.

The Red, White, Blue handed cheap attacking territory over with a penalty for an escort, setting the platform for Sam Walker to throw a superb cut-out pass to Allan Fitzgibbon who raced into the corner to score. Walker converted from the sideline to lock it up at six-all after 20 minutes.

After a physical, fast-paced 15 minutes of football, the Roosters thought they had reclaimed the lead as the ball found Henare-Schuster out wide who stepped the fullback and dived over, but the referee ruled a forward pass.

Advancing upfield on the back of a penalty, North Sydney looked like they had scored a try of their own to go ahead before half time, but officials spotted a knock on as the ball was planted. The sides headed into half time with the game tied up at six-apiece.

The Bears came racing out of the blocks, opening the scoring for the second half after just five minutes as Walker played a short ball to Elie El-Zakhem who bumped off multiple defenders on his way to the line. Walker converted to put his side up by six.

Twenty minutes of end-to-end football with plenty of brave defensive efforts from the Roosters wasn’t quite enough to swing the game back in their favour, with the home side eventually extending their lead as Josh Bergamin got the ball to Tuipulotu Katoa in space who dived over. Walker converted successfully from the sideline for a 12-point lead with 14 minutes to play.

Probing for a way back into the contest, Easts sent the ball out to their left edge through the hands of Paulo, Corey Allan and Ethan Clark-Wood who delivered a pass to Henare-Schuster who dived over to reduce the deficit to eight.

Despite a spirited second half effort, Easts were downed 18-10 by the North Sydney Bears who secured the Minor Premiership at home.

Sydney Roosters 10 (Corey Allan, Tavita Henare-Schuster tries, Jaxson Paulo goal) def by North Sydney Bears 18.