They’ve conceded just 32 points in their past five finals matches but the Sydney Roosters warn their best night of defence is still to come.
Hellbent on maintaining their strong defensive record, Roosters forward Sio Siua Taukeiaho has declared they want to keep Canberra scoreless on Monday.
Trying to defend not just their NRL title but also their tryline, the Roosters’ brick wall has been one of the most resilient in the competition for years.
And it’s in the big finals matches where their defence has been at its best.
The Roosters haven’t conceded a first-half try in their last four finals games – Cronulla were the least team to breach their defence in the first half of a playoff in last year’s qualifying final.
“Yeah, it sounds good. But as players we know we can do better than that,” Taukeiaho told AAP
“I don’t think we have given our best defensive game yet to any team. The plan is to do it Sunday.
“I know others will look at it like that’s pretty good if a team is only scoring one try.
“Six points (conceded in a match) is still heaps for us and Trent Robinson.”
Premierships are built on defence and Trent Robinson has made that the core of everything since arriving in 2013.
Players are given individual video homework and their own role in defence. Trust is essential.
“Everyone has that hunger and brutality in them to go after players, whoever is running the ball,” Taukeiaho said.
It’s shown. The Roosters have been in the top two defensive outfits in the NRL in five of the seven years Robinson has been there.
In 41 games of Robinson’s 188 games in charge, they have kept opponents to single figures.
In 11 of those matches it has been to nil.
But not this year.
“We worked so hard through the whole pre-season about defence, and we also set a task about not letting tries in,” Taukeiaho said.
“I don’t think we’ve done it this year. We’ve been so close and taken teams down to the last 10 minutes of a game.
“But we’ve just switched off and they’ve been able to score those points. We’ve got one more game to get it done.”
The Raiders are one of the few teams to have found the Roosters wanting this year, scoring a combined 42 points in their two losses to them this year.
Five-eighth Jack Wighton has been at the centre of much of that, setting up a try and three line breaks when the two teams met in Magic Round.
His solution for breaking the Roosters defence is simple.
“We’ll just play our football,” Wighton said.
“We have (scored points against them). We’ve got the strike power to do it. We’ve just got to be consistent and play the long game.”