Todd Carney's late try sealed a narrow win for the Sydney Roosters in a low-scoring but entertaining NRL encounter at Campbelltown Stadium yesterday.
The Tigers led for 74 minutes, but were made to pay for a series of missed opportunities due to a combination of poor handling and some magnificent
defending from the Roosters in an arm-wrestle of a second half.
Both sides lined up with new halfback combinations due to injury problems, with Carney moving from fullback into the No 7 shirt in place of Mitchell Pearce and Robbie Farah making a similar move for the Tigers.
After spending the whole of his Roosters career at fullback, Carney endured a difficult afternoon on his return into the halves with a number of handling errors.
However, the former Canberra star managed to come up with the match-winning try after Beau Ryan spilled a spiralling kick under pressure from Anthony Minichiello.
Tim Sheens' decision to move Farah from hooker looked to have been vindicated as the Tigers dominated the opening 15 minutes. But despite having the Roosters on the back foot they only had Benji Marshall's early penalty to show for their efforts.
Marshall hit the right upright with another kick from in front of the posts.
That reprieve galvanised the Roosters, with Minichiello going very close, only to fumble the ball in the in-goal area after latching on to Sam Perrett's grubber-kick.
However, the former New South Wales and test fullback redeemed himself in the 21st-minute when he managed to barge a rampaging Lote Tuqiri into touch as the dual international charged towards the line.
Chris Heighington finally crossed the line for the hosts four minutes before the interval with a well-worked try after latching on to Marshall's no-look pass.
The Roosters cut the deficit three minutes after the restart when prop Frank-Paul Nuuausala darted over after good work out of dummy-half from Nick Kouparitsas.
Carney's kick closed the Tigers' lead to two points as tempers frayed. Braith Anasta was in the thick of the action as players from both sides had to be pulled apart after a bust-up involving the Roosters skipper and Blake Ayshford that ended with Anasta being placed on report.
- AAP
