The Roosters have proven too classy for the Raiders in Canberra, running out 44-16 winners at with James Tedesco giving Blues coach Michael Maguire a timely reminder with a season-best performance.
Tedesco is reportedly neck-and-neck with Penrith’s Dylan Edwards for the Blues’ No. 1 jersey, and the Roosters champ could not have done much more to push for selection in his final audition before teams are announced on Sunday night.
Tedesco scored two tries, set up three more and had four line break assists in a dominant showing.
Other Origin hopefuls in teammates Angus Crichton (127m, try, 23 tackles), Joseph Suaalii (84m, a try) and Raiders’ Hudson Young (97m, five tackle busts, a try) also had strong afternoons.
Roosters centre Joey Manu was one of the best afield with two tries and 130 running metres.
Bouncing back from last week’s defeat to the Sharks, the Roosters were in a mood early, racing out to a 12-0 lead inside the first 10 minutes.
One of those tries weren’t without controversy though when the Roosters were awarded a suspect penalty try.
Roosters five-eighth Luke Keary chased down a Sam Walker grubber and appeared to score but knocked the ball on when trying to ground it.
However, Raiders lock Morgan Smithies was ruled to have made contact with Keary as he was chasing the grubber through, which according to the Bunker, affected Keary’s ability to score the try. This was despite Keary clearly getting to the ball first anyway.
