Three new Roosters recruits took their share of the limelight on Monday night as the Sydney Roosters defeated the Parramatta Eels 50-0 at Allianz Stadium to wrap up round four of the NRL Telstra Premiership.
In front of an 18,014 home crowd, the tricolours proved too strong for the Parramatta Eels, with both Sonny Bill Williams and former Panther Michael Jennings crossing the strip to add to their side's 50-point haul.
The two teams traded sets for the opening ten minutes, but it was the home side that took advantage to open the scoring in the 11th minute through Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.
As young Parramatta winger Vai Toutai struggled to wrap up a bomb on his own tryline, Jake Friend pounced on the lost ball to send the Roosters prop over the strip under the goal posts.
In return, Eels centre Jacob Loko couldn't quite ground a Chris Sandow grubber, and the Roosters took advantage of their next sets to thoroughly test the Eels defence.
Pearce stepped in again to bat back a towering James Maloney bomb and give new recruit Sonny Bill Williams a chance to ground the ball and notch up his first points in Roosters colours.
And after the Eels left hand side defence held up two more raids from an eager Roosters attack, the tricolours broke through once more in the 27th minute as Roger Tuivasa-Sheck collected a kick to score in the right hand corner.
Tuivasa-Sheck made it a double in the 35th minute, and with another new Rooster, James Maloney, in form with the boot, the Eels headed back to the sheds trailing 22-0.
The home side proved too sharp again to open the second half scoring, thanks to a short pass from Minichiello to Michael Jennings.
And despite threatening on the left edge, the Eels attack was derailed by handling errors as the blue-and-gold struggled to put points on the board.
Dogged defence on the Eels right hand edge undid the Roosters' repeated attempts to send Daniel Tupou over the line and increase their lead, but they found more success on the right edge through winger Roger Tuivasa-Sheck as he racked up his third try for the night.
The Roosters finished the night with tries to interchange hooker Daniel Mortimer, Daniel Tupou and Boyd Cordner, with Maloney converting 7 of 9.
Head Coach Ricky Stuart described it as an uncomfortable part of the road back to success for the Eels.
"When you're playing against a team of that quality, it's a learning experience," Stuart said.
"They were too good for us.
"We're in a very, very important rebuilding period and it's going to take a long time to turn around."
"But we'll try and do it as quickly as we possibly can, and try and do everything we can for our supporters and fans."
Sydney Roosters: 50 (Waerea-Hargreaves, Williams, Tuivasa-Sheck 3, Jennings, Mortimer, Tupou, Cordner; Maloney 7/9 goals)
Parramatta Eels: 0
In front of an 18,014 home crowd, the tricolours proved too strong for the Parramatta Eels, with both Sonny Bill Williams and former Panther Michael Jennings crossing the strip to add to their side's 50-point haul.
The two teams traded sets for the opening ten minutes, but it was the home side that took advantage to open the scoring in the 11th minute through Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.
As young Parramatta winger Vai Toutai struggled to wrap up a bomb on his own tryline, Jake Friend pounced on the lost ball to send the Roosters prop over the strip under the goal posts.
In return, Eels centre Jacob Loko couldn't quite ground a Chris Sandow grubber, and the Roosters took advantage of their next sets to thoroughly test the Eels defence.
Pearce stepped in again to bat back a towering James Maloney bomb and give new recruit Sonny Bill Williams a chance to ground the ball and notch up his first points in Roosters colours.
And after the Eels left hand side defence held up two more raids from an eager Roosters attack, the tricolours broke through once more in the 27th minute as Roger Tuivasa-Sheck collected a kick to score in the right hand corner.
Tuivasa-Sheck made it a double in the 35th minute, and with another new Rooster, James Maloney, in form with the boot, the Eels headed back to the sheds trailing 22-0.
The home side proved too sharp again to open the second half scoring, thanks to a short pass from Minichiello to Michael Jennings.
And despite threatening on the left edge, the Eels attack was derailed by handling errors as the blue-and-gold struggled to put points on the board.
Dogged defence on the Eels right hand edge undid the Roosters' repeated attempts to send Daniel Tupou over the line and increase their lead, but they found more success on the right edge through winger Roger Tuivasa-Sheck as he racked up his third try for the night.
The Roosters finished the night with tries to interchange hooker Daniel Mortimer, Daniel Tupou and Boyd Cordner, with Maloney converting 7 of 9.
Head Coach Ricky Stuart described it as an uncomfortable part of the road back to success for the Eels.
"When you're playing against a team of that quality, it's a learning experience," Stuart said.
"They were too good for us.
"We're in a very, very important rebuilding period and it's going to take a long time to turn around."
"But we'll try and do it as quickly as we possibly can, and try and do everything we can for our supporters and fans."
Sydney Roosters: 50 (Waerea-Hargreaves, Williams, Tuivasa-Sheck 3, Jennings, Mortimer, Tupou, Cordner; Maloney 7/9 goals)
Parramatta Eels: 0
