The Sydney Roosters once again fought to the death but it wasn't enough losing in a nail bitter 14-12 to the Parramatta Eels.
In a sea sawing encounter the Tricolours were aggressive in the middle of the field but lacked execution at key moments.
Boyd Cordner had a great chance to open the scoring in the opening minutes when he burst through the line only to take the wrong option at the death.
The Eels took full advantage and scored minutes later, Ken Sio finishing off a fast and efficient back line movement.
Desperate to score next the Tricolours noticeably lifted their aggression and it was two dynamic runs by the starting front rowers that our the visitors on the scoreboard.
First it was Waerea-Hargreaves who put the Eels on the back foot before his partner in crime, Sam Moa crashed over to put the visitors in front.
The visitors continued to pressure the Eels line but a raft of handling errors continued to let the Tricolours down.
A clever cross field kick from Sandow then landed in the hands of Sio for his second, once again putting the Eels in front.
Daniel Tupou then put on a show, producing one of the best solo tries of the year to once again put the Tricolours in front.
The flying winger ran straight past Sandow before beating Hayne at fullback and two more cover defenders in a memorable eighty meter dash.
A quick overlap just after the break enabled Radradra to score down the short side and wrestle the momentum back for the home side.
It was the Eels who were winning the field position battle constantly threatening the Roosters line.
Twice the officials went to the video referee, both ruled held up over the line.
Once they got back in to their rhythm the Tricolours repeatedly attacked the Eels try line but a lack of execution at key moments was proving costly.
Jake Friend went close when he knocked on chasing down an unexpected Pearce grubber.
With just over two minutes to play Williams looked liked he might have crashed over only to have been ruled to have come up just short of the line by the video referee.
Despite the loss, the margin sees us reclaim the Jack Gibson Cup in 2014.
