World Club Challenge: ROOSTERS vs WIGAN

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Roosters thump Knights in WCC warm-up

The Sydney Roosters blew away the cobwebs ahead of next week's World Club Challenge against Super League champions Wigan with an emphatic 32-4 NRL trial win over Newcastle at Wyong.

With coach Trent Robinson in Auckland for the Nines competition, assistant coaches Craig Fitzgibbon and Steve McNamara took control of the side that contained 10 of last year's grand final-winning team starting against a vastly inexperienced Knights outfit.

Sonny Bill Williams' last appearance was in front of more than 76,000 fans at Old Trafford in the Rugby League World Cup final for New Zealand, almost three months ago.

But at the more humble surroundings of the Morrie Breen Field, the dual international superstar was still the star attraction for a 2000 strong crowd let in for free.

Central Coast junior James Maloney, on home territory, broke the deadlock after nine minutes when he squeezed his way over the line from close range.

In an opening period played almost entirely in the Knights half, it was no surprise when Mitchell Aubusson stretched his side's advantage.

Williams was the architect of the try with a swift outside pass that allowed the centre to ease his way across the line.

NSW back-rower Boyd Cordner and young prop Willis Meehan also went over for the premiers with Moloney's boot stretching the lead to 22-0.

On the stroke of halftime, Williams found himself crashing down to earth following a huge shot from veteran front-rower David Fa'alogo which dislodged the ball from his grasp just 20 metres in front of the Roosters' posts.

The Knights subsequently took advantage of their good field position, with the ball spread wide to Josh Mantellato and the young winger found the corner to get the Knights on the scoreboard.

Both sides made a raft of changes at the break with the Roosters lineup mostly swapped over for the Newtown Jets NSW Cup side for the final two periods.

New Zealand international prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves scored the opening try of the second half after a great ball Daniel Mortimer.

In Saturday's other trial match, Penrith showed off a host of new recruits as they cruised to a thumping 56-10 win over NSW Cup side Wentworthville, the feeder team for Parramatta.

New halfback Peter Wallace steered Penrith around the park, scored a try and kicked eight goals, while hulking centre Jamal Idris cross the stripe with his first touch in Panthers' colours and veteran front rower Brent Kite, another off-season signing, also got amongst the action.

http://www.nrl.com/

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Classy touch by the Roosters.

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Video: WIGAN and ROOSTERS prepare for lash - CLICK HERE

Video: Wigan fans out in force - CLICK HERE

[DIEHARD]

Love seeing the footage of Wigan fans visiting RL Central and the Museum. Also how they refer to themselves as not just Wigan supporters but Rugby League supporters.

[TITAN PETE]

Love seeing the footage of Wigan fans visiting RL Central and the Museum. Also how they refer to themselves as not just Wigan supporters but Rugby League supporters.

Most real supporters are mate as you & i fall into that catergory , i'm really looking forward to this match & am very happy to be ticking the event off my bucket list

[TITAN PETE]

WCC international broadcast details

NRL.com
9:28am Fri 21st February, 2014

The World Club Challenge between NRL premiers the Sydney Roosters and reigning English Super League champions the Wigan Warriors will be screened around the world.

The match kicks off at 8pm AEST on Saturday, February 22 and will be broadcast in Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, parts of Europe and in North America.

Australian viewers can watch the game on the Nine Network from 7.30pm Sydney time, while overseas viewers can see it on the following networks:

Asia (excluding Japan) - Setanta Asia
Africa - Setanta/Fox
Pacific Islands - Fiji TV
Canada - Rogers
France - BeInsport
UK & Eire - Sky Sports
Middle East - OSN
USA - Fox

[DIEHARD]

Most real supporters are mate as you & i fall into that catergory , i'm really looking forward to this match & am very happy to be ticking the event off my bucket list

Hell yea. That's why I like you so much. I get on well with Rugby League supporters over NRL club fans. Also why I love the English fans so much, they do so much to support the game.

[TITAN PETE]

Wigan Jerseys everywhere in Sydney today great to see

[TITAN PETE]

Bowen is no longer 1st grade quality

[Titanic]

Bowen is no longer 1st grade quality

Yep, he was awful ... in fact the game was pretty poor I thought and just gave the Roosters a good run and more bragging rights.

[DIEHARD]

Sad to hear Bowen wasn't good.

Glad Wigan fought back and make it respectable.

Roosters fans must be delighted winning the double on Australian soil.

Also very happy with the crowd, with little promotion and lots of distraction out there, 32,000 was achieved.

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Friend leads Roosters to WCC win

Jake Friend and Mitchell Pearce put on virtuoso performances and Michael Jennings scored a hat-trick as the Sydney Roosters won the World Club Challenge 36-14, beating a lacklustre Wigan Warriors outfit.

The Tricolours built the win on the back of a solid 18-0 first half shutout, overcoming a brief second-half fightback and an error-riddled performance from Sonny Bill Williams to make it back-to-back WCC titles for the Aussie clubs over their Super League counterparts following Melbourne's win over Leeds in 2013.

Pearce and Friend were the architects of the Roosters' dominant first half performance. Pearce was heavily involved, showing great vision for the Roosters' opening try inside the first five minutes, taking the ball to the short side and sending Jennings through a gap.

Man of the match Friend set up the second when his flat ball from dummy half found the chest of a rampaging Sam Moa who crashed over under the posts to make it 12-0 after 13 minutes.

The busy hooker set up the next try just after the 20-minute mark following a great Pearce offload. Friend grubbered through for himself and while he couldn't get there Jennings was on hand to clean up the scraps and earn himself a double.

The Roosters were patchy for the rest of the half, repeatedly offering Wigan chances up their end of the field, but a flat-footed and disorganised Warriors outfit never really looked like breaching a Tricoloured defensive wall that proved so tough to crack in the NRL in 2013.

Former Rabbitoh Eddy Pettybourne found himself on report for a big swinging arm that sent Roosters winger Shaun Kenny-Dowall flying. Kenny-Dowall dusted himself off and looked to have scored in the next set but put a foot into touch on his way to the line, with the hosts taking an 18-0 lead into the break.

Wigan hit back shortly after the resumption through winger Joe Burgess, who cashed in on an overlap to score in the corner.

Sonny Bill Williams let the Warriors off the hook when an attempted offload found a red and white jersey but a scrappy Wigan allowed Jennings to pounce on a loose ball that found the ground, the centre racing 30 metres to score his third try and stretch the Roosters to a 24-4 lead.

Wigan and English Test winger Josh Charnley scored the next two tries of the match. The first came when Anthony Minichiello fluffed an attempt at defusing a bomb from Wigan halfback Matty Smith - one of several such errors in a patchy performance from the skipper.

Charnley's second came around the 60-minute mark when a series of repeat sets on the Roosters line finally paid dividends for Wigan, but Smith couldn't convert and 24-14 was as close as Wigan got.

In a carbon copy of Moa's try, fellow Roosters prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves crashed over from a Friend flat ball, then Williams made partial amends for his sloppy night when a classy flick allowed Mitchell Aubusson to put Kenny-Dowall over in the corner and ice the victory.

http://www.nrl.com/friend-leads-roos...1/default.aspx

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Time to expand WCC: Robinson

Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has hit out at the lack of promotion of the World Club Challenge and says the fan interest shows the code in Australia underestimated the appeal of the event.

Robinson said the event should be expanded in future years with the top three Super League teams to play the top three NRL teams on consecutive days over a weekend in pre-season, and the spectacle should be played in Australia and England on alternate years.

“How much time and effort did we put into preparing this as a competition? Our focus was on the Nines,” Robinson said after 31,515 people turned out to watch the Roosters thump Wigan 36-14.

“There wasn’t a huge amount of advertising about it, there wasn’t a huge amount of preparation as far as the event, the week, and 31 thousand people turned up.

“We underestimated the crowd and we underestimated the occasion for the Australian fans, we could easily make this a huge event. And it’s an important one. We need to support our code.”

Robinson said the match could have filled the 44,000-seat Allianz Stadium if it had been marketed better, and the Charity Shield between South Sydney and St George Illawarra hadn’t been played on the same night.

Three games, between the third, second and top teams from the NRL and Super League, could be played on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday – and the demand is there from the northern hemisphere, Robinson said.

“Those clubs over there are saying ‘we want to come down here and do that,’” he said.

“Our pre-season’s a bit muddled at the moment. Some teams play three [games], some teams play one, we’ve got the Nines, which was a great concept, but we’ve got to organise it better.

“We could really make something of this pre-season – to improve the commercial product of the Nines, to improve the competition of the northern hemisphere, and get ready for the NRL season.

“We can’t have three trials plus nines, it needs to be structured but you definitely can do it.”

http://www.nrl.com/time-to-expand-wc...2/default.aspx

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Robinson is right, its a shame it clashed with the Charity Shield!