After trailing by 12 points in the early stages, the Sydney Roosters launched a determined fightback to overcome the Parramatta Eels 31-18 in the Jersey Flegg Preliminary Final at Leichhardt Oval on Saturday afternoon.
The Minor Premiers made the most of their opportunities with the ball, running in four unanswered tries to book a spot in next week’s Grand Final at CommBank Stadium.
Match: Roosters v Eels
Finals Week 3 -
home Team
Roosters
away Team
Eels
Venue: Leichhardt Oval, Sydney
Despite being reduced to 12 men early in the contest, Parramatta were able to plot their attack following a penalty. Finding space out wide, winger Ethyn Martin looked set to score before he was bundled into touch by determined Roosters defenders.
On the resuming set, Easts marched Parramatta all the way up the field and found a spectacular opening try as Cassius Tia threw a perfect Harbour Bridge pass to Tavita Henare-Schuster, who dived over to score.
It didn’t take long for the Eels to respond, as Blaize Talagi exploded through a gap in the Roosters’ line to plant the ball down, before Ethan Sanders converted from out wide to put Parramatta up by two.
Corey Ross' sin-binning left Easts with 12 players on the field, and it didn't take the Eels long to make the most of their extra man with a shift to their right resulting in Matthew Komolafe leaping over in the corner. Sanders converted from the sideline to put the Eels up 12-4.
Sanders provided the spark for Parramatta a few minutes later, delivering a cross-field kick to his Skipper Jock Brazel, who found the halfback with an offload before flicking a long ball to Martin, who raced into the corner.
Looking for a response, the Roosters were ignited by a heads-up play from their halfback Tia, as he poked a perfectly weighted chip kick in behind the defensive line, with Chatfield-Mooka beating defenders to the ball to pick it up and score. Tia converted from in-front to bring the game back to a converted try margin.
Receiving a penalty on the stroke of half time, the Eels opted to take the two points to push their lead out to 18-10 at the break.
Easts capitalised on a strong opening to the second half, with Jake Elliott skipping past a defender before flicking a spiral pass to his winger Vaiala Tamati who evaded the defence with his footwork to score. Tia converted to close the gap to two points.
A couple of strong carries from the Tricolours coming out of their own end carried them deep into enemy territory before an offload from Alan Holten sent Salesi Foketi over the line to put Easts back in-front.
Desperate play allowed Chatfield-Mooka to claim his second try, after Tia found the winger with a kick before a combination of offloads allowed the ball to make it's way back to him on the edge to extend the Roosters advantage to six with 10 minutes remaining.
As the clock ticked down and the Roosters were on the attack, Tia nailed a field goal from in front to notch up a seven-point lead.
Putting the game beyond doubt, Owen Flaherty collected an offload from Max McCathie through the middle to race away and score, swan diving under the posts in jubilation.
Tamati converted the try to secure a 31-18 victory and a spot in next week’s Jersey Flegg Cup Grand Final against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs at CommBank Stadium.
Sydney Roosters 31 (Tavita Henare-Schuster, Xavier Chatfield-Mooka 2, Vaiala Tamati, Salesi Foketi, Owen Flaherty tries. Cassius Tia 2, Vaiala Tamati goals. Cassius Tia field goal) def Parramatta Eels 18.
