Wigan Warriors 8-20 Sydney Roosters

The Sydney Roosters have claimed their 4th World Club Challenge with a strong performance on a chilly night at the DW Stadium in Wigan.

Debutant Brett Morris was the hero, scoring a first-half hat-trick as the Warriors had no answer to the NRL Premiers’ fluent attacking performance.

Despite a spirited fightback from the home side, they left themselves too much to do after conceding two soft tries in the opening eight minutes.

In front of a near capacity crowd of 21,331, it was the Roosters who struck first blood after just three minutes when Morris, playing in the centres in place of the absent Latrell Mitchell, slipped away from a couple of weak tackles and went over in the left corner.

Five minutes later he doubled his tally in the same corner after more poor defending. The Warriors players thought they’d held him up in a four-man tackle but he somehow stretched his arm out to plant the ball down and give the Roosters an 8-0 advantage.

Sio Siua Taukeiaho added the conversion to give the visitors a 10-0 lead.

At that point, it looked as though it might be a humiliation for the home side but a high tackle from Kiwi prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves on Wigan hooker Sam Powell sparked them into life and after a short spell of pressure on the Roosters line they went over through winger Tom Davies.

Zak Hardaker missed the conversion but the Warriors were within a converted try now of their opponents.

On 31 minutes though came what was perhaps the decisive score, as Morris completed his hat-trick after good work from Luke Keary and Cooper Cronk.

A second missed conversion from Taukeiaho meant it was 14-4 to Sydney at the break.

The second half was a more even affair but the damage had been done before the interval.

Taukeiaho kicked a penalty to push the Roosters out to a 12 point lead but on 65 minutes Wigan gave themselves a glimmer of hope when winger Liam Marshall showed great footwork to control a poor George Williams pass, before picking up and going over in the same corner where Morris’ three tries came. Hardaker missed the conversion again to leave the score at 8-16 with 15 minutes to go.

There was to be no miraculous comeback from the Super League champions though, as the game was put beyond all doubt four minutes from time by Roosters winger Daniel Tupou, as he claimed a high ball from Keary’s kick to touch down in the corner.

Wigan will be left rueing a sloppy start, and they were left playing catch-up for the whole game, giving themselves too much to do. It took a high tackle from Waerea-Hargreaves to spark them into life and if they’d started with that intensity it may have been a slightly closer scoreline.

As for the Roosters, they looked excellent in the first half particularly, and their defence looked very solid in their first game of 2019. On this evidence, and with Latrell Mitchell to come back too they’ll be a very difficult side to stop this year in the NRL.

You can check out my website at www.darrennotley.com.

22 COMMENTS

  1. Will never hear the end of this, get ready all ZT people, it’s coming from you know who!!

    For all the decent Easts fans , congrats on the win.

  6. Agree, Roosters won this game in the first 15. Wigan played with spirit and skill but were outclassed. Wigan will benefit from that game and perform better in Superleague as a result. Congratulations to the Roosters for a fantastic game. Well worth getting up at 6:00am for. Congratulations also to Robinson on his heartfelt comments after the game. You were spot on there.

  8. 💪🐔👍 Thanks mate, that puts the icing on the cake from last season for the Chooks, But now it starts all over again. Should be another close season, Can’t wait for the season opener Melbourne vs Brisbane in Melbourne 14/03/19 only 3 weeks and 3 days to kick off.

  10. By the number of thank you comments here from the wood, you’d think he actually took to the field himself and won man of the match. Well done wood. 🏅

  11. Congrats Easts and enjoy your victories . Forget about nrl2019 as anything and everything does happen. Penrith woodenspooners 2001 then champs 2003.. Roosters spooners 2009 then the bubbler took em to the GF in 2010. Savour the moment before you know it there could be another 27 year drought

  12. My second post didn’t get through? Was just saying Get rid of that stupid Sydney Roosters name and go back to being called Easts! My rant continues .. get rid of Clover Moore as well … she hates you guys.. no keys to the city and almost kicked you out of fox studios. If Easts Rise Up then get your name back .

  15. NO Maki we are the Sydney Roosters and we are keeping that name. It opens the door for everybody who lives in Greater Sydney to call the Roosters their team. It is a marketing genius name that will pay dividends.

    The game today with the commentators calling us SYDNEY while playing in England should make everybody feel happy and proud of our magnificent greater Sydney City of nearly 6 million people. I know young people who were born in the suburbs of greater Sydney and still live in the suburbs today follow Melbourne, Brisbane Warriors, Canberra etc.

    If the Roosters continue to be in the top eight for many years continuing to compete for grand finals or Minor premierships then Easts under the name of Sydney can tap into those type of fans and they will call the Sydney Roosters their local team even if they live in any of Greater Sydney 650 suburbs. Sydney Roosters is a great name and we are keeping it💪🐔👍

  16. You are joking. Fair play for winning the double, but it’s going to be a long time between drinks from here on in. Was nice to watch an Easts game without their usual 50% paedophile ring members and 50% Hillsong crowd in attendance.

  18. Not the kind that was only this morning reportedly found in the waste that they just tested in Easts territory…no doubt your board members like Ibrahim supplied Sydney with most of it.

  19. Sydney Roosters Board Members at the Easts club are as follows
    NICK POLITIS AM Director and Chairman since 1993
    MARK BOURIS AM Director since 2003
    ANDREW CRAWFORD Appointed Director January 2017
    PETER NEWTON Director since 2001
    BRIEN SAMPHIER Director since 2002
    MARK FENNESSY AM Appointed Director April 2007
    LUKE RICKETSON Director since 2010
    SCOTT BENNETTS Appointed as Group CEO in 2011

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