Four second-half tries saw Sydney Roosters pull away to a 32-18 win over Parramatta Eels after the wooden spooners from last year had the lead twice in the second half.
The defeat was the first for the Eels while the Roosters have now won two in a row after defeat in the opening round to local rivals South Sydney Rabbitohs.
It was written in the stars that Blake Ferguson would score first against his old club and he had Junior Paulo to thank who produced a superb cut-out pass in the build-up.
But it didn’t take long for the Roosters to reply through James Tedesco who just had too much speed close to the line. Latrell Mitchell did miss the conversion but two penalties from the make-shift stand-off gave Sydney the lead at half-time.
Their advantage was shortlived though as Parramatta’s new Fijian flyer Maika Sivo scored his first NRL try to give his side the lead. But some brilliance from Daniel Tupou set up Mitchell Aubusson as the Roosters took back the advantage four minutes later.
The seesaw nature of the game continued when Sivo barrelled his way over Matt Ikuvalu for his second try before Victor Radley re-established the Roosters’ lead from dummy half.
Finally, the Roosters started to dominate and gained a two-score lead when Tedesco set up Sio Siua Taukeiaho. Then Tedesco compounded the result using his speed to score his second try of the game.
Eels: Gutherson, Sivo, M Jennings, Takairangi, Ferguson, Brown, Moses, Alvaro, Mahoney, Paulo, Lane, Niukore, Terepo; Interchanges: Salmon, Mannah, Evans, Kaufusi
Tries: Ferguson, Sivo 2; Goals: Moses 3
Roosters: Tedesco, Tupou, Aubusson, Manu, Ikuvalu, Mitchell, Keary, Waerea-Hargreaves, Friend, Taukeiaho, Cordner, Crichton, Liu; Interchanges: Radley, Tetevano, Faamausili, Lam
Tries: Tedesco 2, Aubusson, Radley, Taukeiaho; Goals: Mitchell 6
Full match reports of all this weekend’s NRL games will feature in Monday’s League Express
