14-0 down, things could be worse for Souths but they haven't looked like troubling the score sheet.
The issue with South Sydney is that they don't have too many attacking weapons. Their pack is one of the weakest in the NRL and their backline doesn't pose much of a threat. If Reynolds and Farah can't get their kicking game right, they look out of options.
Sydney started well, but a couple of basic errors have prevented them from going on with it. As soon as Luke Keary kicked the ball over the sideline after the Kenny-Dowall break, it appeared to deflate the rest of the side and he's fortunate that Souths look bereft of options.
The Roosters were looking ragged and Keary just hung on and hung on and flopped over and hung on some more and I swear he gets the shits with the ref for NOT blowing the penalty.
The roosters halves like to play on the same side as eachother quite a lot. Several of their plays invlolve both of them on one side of the field then on the other side two plays later, I really like how it worked for them.
Also I don't know if it's the lack of intensity from the rabbits but it looked like the roosters forwards were running incredibly hard tonight.
When you can coast through out an entire second half, turning it on when you need to, you know you've got a good team. With Taukeiaho & Ferguson to return, there's plenty to like about Sydney this season. What impressed me most is how they just backed their defence. They weren't concerned about conceding goal-line drop outs, they knew they had Souths measure and demonstrated it wave after wave of attack.
It was a positive night for the Roosters, but let's not kid ourselves, Souths were very ordinary tonight. They're guilty of sticking to the plays that worked for them in 2014 and not playing enough football. Too often they rely on their power game, rarely challenging the defence with ball-play or looking to exploit weaknesses. They're robotic and they no longer have the cattle to get away with such a rigid gameplan.
Based on what I saw tonight, they face a long night ahead of them up in Townsville next week.
Please consider adding BHQ to your Adblock Whitelist. We do our best to make sure it doesn't affect your experience on the website, and the funds help us pay server and software costs.