In one of the Holden Cup clashes of the season, the Roosters escape Lottoland with a narrow 38-32 win over the Sea Eagles.
The Roosters were by far the better team in the opening stages, forcing repeat sets and kicking well to gain field position.
They were rewarded with points just five minutes in when Sean O’Sullivan sent Sitili Tupouniua over just wide of the uprights with a pin-point short ball.
Momentum would keep rolling on for the young Roosters and they were again rewarded with points just minutes later, when Adam Pompey put in a well weighted grubber that was collected and put-down by Zane Blake in the corner.
It was only a couple of sets of six later before the young Roosters found their way back into attacking territory, and Captain Reuben Porter found a small gap between the uprights and barged his way through it to make it a sixteen point game.
There was no slowing down the fast starting Roosters, scoring again in the closing ten minutes of the first half through Adam Pompey on the right edge.
From the kick off in the following set it was Lyndon Hills found a bit of space to zoom his way through the line, recover from an ankle tap to get up to sprint between the uprights.
The second half would see the Sea Eagles on fire from the opening whistle, scoring in their first set of six through second rower Josh Martin.
Their next points of the contest would follow just ten minutes later when lightening quick winger Jade Anderson stormed his way onto a well placed bomb to go over on the wing.
In the set of six to follow, winger Jade Anderson found space out wide again for the Sea Eagles, then passed inside to his centre partner Tevita Funa to make it an intriguing contest.
Roosters fans would quickly start biting their nails when Sea Eagles five-eighth Tom Wright split the defence on halfway and sprinted his way to the corner to bring it to within a converted try.
Winger Jade Anderson collected his double minutes later to officially sound off alarm bells as the scores locked up with just under twenty minutes remaining in the contest.
After gaining their first possession in attacking position, the Roosters capitalised through Lyndon Hills for his second of the morning, plucking a well weighted bomb out of the air and planting it down.
Back-to-back for the Roosters in just the following set for the Roosters as Jackson Frei found a little bit of space on the right hand side to shove his way over and take the margin out to ten points.
The nail-biting would soon continue though when Sea Eagles five-eighth again split them up the middle, stormed to the line and shaved the lead back to a converted try.
A couple of late scares, but the Roosters would hang on for a narrow lead.
Roosters: 38 (Tupouniua, Blake, Porter, Pompey, Hills x 2, Frei) O'Sullivan converted 5/7
