Sydney Roosters made light of James Tedesco's absence in a sensational 10-try 59-0 rout of Brisbane Broncos, who suffered their worst ever NRL defeat in a dismal defensive showing.
Tedesco helped inspire the Roosters to a derby win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs as NRL returned last week, but was ruled out after recording a high temperature in line with NRL's coronavirus-prevention measures.
And yet the defending Premiers did not miss a step at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium as the youthful, shell-shocked hosts were left embarrassed.
It was essentially game over inside the 20 minutes. Josh Morris scored his first Roosters try and Joseph Manu finished a neat team move, before Victor Radley touched down when pure brute strength saw him break through the Broncos' shaky defence.
What a performance #NRLBroncosRoosters pic.twitter.com/WOHTRKIx8t
— NRL (@NRL) June 4, 2020
Angus Crichton scored the first of a brace and Kyle Flanagan – who also nailed nine of his 10 conversions – went over as the Broncos trailed 29-0 at the break.
Any hope of a fightback was quickly quashed when Luke Keary had his first try of the year three minutes after the restart, while Lindsay Collins' score preceded Crichton bundling over for his second.
Daniel Tupou and Brett Morris tries arrived in the final 10 minutes to round out a superb showing from the Roosters and finally end the misery for the hosts, who were beaten 58-0 by the Parramatta Eels in last season's Elimination Final.
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