The method of Sydney Roosters’ convincing victory against Manly, which will worry Penrith ahead of the NRL preliminary final.
The harsh ‘no holds barred’ training sessions that saw players go after each other mercilessly prepared the Roosters for their mauling of Manly’s middles, which came a week after the team had been tormented by the Penrith pack.
The forwards’ desire to make a statement after being effectively restrained by the Panthers in the qualifying final led to their aggressive reaction on Saturday night. The first two carries established the tone as both prop forwards charged into the line, forcing Jake Trbojevic to leave the game due to an HIA that he passed and regrettably knocking out Tolu Koula.
After that, the Roosters kept up the pressure, gaining 337 extra running metres as James Tedesco had a huge game in his milestone match. After the game, bench prop Spencer Leniu remarked, “All the boys came in, took their medicine, and really ripped into each other.” “It felt like pre-season,” that was one of the most difficult weeks we’d had. Just tearing into each other to flip that switch was what we were doing. Just that my efforts paid off, that’s all. There, it’s always rough love. Last week, we were given a reality check. We simply have to pick it up a level. Under Jared’s direction, we carried out the activity during training this week.
