Latrell Mitchell has outscored an opposing NRL team at the SCG for the seventh-straight time in the Sydney Roosters’ 42-6 flogging of the Warriors.
Needing to win to stay in finals contention, the Warriors led 6-0 but otherwise failed to land a punch as they conceded eight unanswered tries.
Mitchell finished Sunday afternoon with a tally of 18 points, including a double to take him to the top of the NRL’s try-scoring list with 17 for the season.
Already well clear on the points-scoring list, he is on track to become the first player since Mal Meninga in 1990 to top both charts at season’s end.
The 22-year-old combined perfectly with Luke Keary on the Roosters’ left edge as the defending premiers moved two points clear into second spot.
Mitchell scored the tricolours’ first in the 18th minute when Jared Waerea-Hargreaves threw a long offload to strip the Warriors for numbers on the left.
And after Joseph Manu put the Roosters ahead 12-6 at halftime, Mitchell and Keary turned it on after the break.
Keary was the first beneficiary, showing and going before finding Mitchell free on the left, before the five-eighth trailed through on the inside to score.
They were at it again soon after, when Keary took the ball to the line and found a sprinting Mitchell to score.
“That’s just instinctive,” Mitchell said.
“Luke is very instinctive and I play with instinct.
“The opportunities are made through the middle with the big boys. And we take our opportunities when the other sides are taking a break.
“Luke knows what I am going to do and I know what he’s going to do – offloads around the corner, out the back. That’s the easy stuff.”
Mitchell’s haul also came after a week in the headlines for the centre, after he called out a racist slur made against him on social media.
“That’s my thing as a coach, to make sure he is not carrying the weight of the week into the game,” Trent Robinson said.
“And it’s not this week and it’s finished – it’s his whole life.
“But his ability to clear his energy and get light again and go out and play. And he did that.”
The Roosters regularly caught the Warriors out for numbers on both sides of the field, with Brett Morris also wreaking havoc on the right wing.
The veteran scored in the second half, albeit after the ball bounced off Cooper Cronk’s head as the halfback chased through a Keary bomb.
James Tedesco scored untouched from a tap to go with his 198 metres and eight tackle busts, while Daniel Tupou and Mitch Aubusson also crossed.
The Warriors lost Gerard Beale to a serious knee injury early, while Jazz Tevaga might be suspended for a late shoulder charge on Cronk.
Tevaga was sin-binned for the hit and, while Cronk initially stayed on, he eventually left the field.
Robinson, however, said there were no serious concerns ahead of the finals.