The Roosters have snapped a two game losing streak in emphatic fashion, cruising past a mistake-ridden Raiders outfit 30-4 in a lop-sided encounter at the Sydney Football Stadium, despite having five players backing up from last night's Centenary Test.
Centre Mitchell Aubusson bagged a double as an electric Roosters side piled on four unanswered tries in a dominant first half, aided by some atrocious play from an undisciplined Canberra side that missed a whopping 25 tackles in the opening stanza alone.
The Raiders put on an improved performance in the second half, getting over the line and restricting the Roosters to just one try, but the contest was effectively over at half time.
Roosters coach Brad Fittler had challenged Braith Anasta to step up and demand Origin selection with a dominant performance, and the pivot responded, exploding out of the blocks to engineer the home side's opening try and score their second – all inside the opening 15 minutes.
Anasta hoisted a towering bomb 40 metres out from the Raiders’ line that was sensationally caught on the full by a leaping Shawn Kenny-Dowall, with the Kiwi somehow managing to get a one arm offload away for Mitchell Aubusson to scoot 10 metres and score under the posts.
Fitzgibbon's conversion made it 6-0 inside 10 minutes.
The Roosters continued to launch wave after wave at the Raiders line, and it wasn’t long before they were in again, Anasta crashing over from close range to make it 10-0.
The visitors continued to cough up the ball in their own end, and this time it was Willie Mason doing the damage, scything through some weak Raiders defence to put Aubusson over for his second in the 25th minute.
Fitzgibbon slotted the extras to make 16-0, and a whitewash looked on the cards.
The Raiders woes were compounded not long after when Lincoln Withers left the field with a potentially season-ending knee injury, leaving the visitors with just three fit replacements.
A spilled bomb from fullback Bronx Goodwin gifted Iosia Soliola another four pointer, Fitzgibbon’s conversion making it 22-nil to the home side after 36 minutes. The home side almost extending their lead right on the stroke of half time with a miraculous 50-metre attacking movement that was almost finished of by Sam Perrett.
The Raiders started the second half with renewed purpose and better ball control, and when Joel Monaghan crossed out wide in the 49th minute to make it 22-4, there was just a hint of another second half Roosters fade-out in the air.
But the visitors were unable to land back-to-back four pointers to apply any pressure to the Roosters, with Fitzgibbon adding a penalty goal in the 66th minute to extend the margin beyond three converted tries.
Mark O’Meley ensured the Roosters ended on a high, brushing off some weak attempted tackles to dive over in the final minute and cap a convincing 30-4 win.
