The Sydney Roosters deny they're worried by Jekyll and Hyde lapses after fighting off a late Canberra comeback to extend their NRL winning streak to eight.
Following their 30-24 win in a Magic Round thriller against the Raiders on Sunday, there's little arguing the ladder leaders are the form team of the competition and deserve to be clear title favourites.
But after leaving Ricky Stuart's side shell-shocked at 30-6 with 30 minutes remaining, they allowed the Raiders back into the contest, as they have often done over the past month.
Their left side was decimated when Daniel Tupou (neck) was hospitalised, skipper Boyd Cordner was forced off with a concussion and Latrell Mitchell left the field with a groin problem.
However the superstar centre did return in the second half.
But coach Trent Robinson was adamant their injury worries didn't contribute to the way they took their foot off the pedal in the second half.
They have produced similar fade-outs against St George Illawarra and Melbourne over the previous three weeks before winning at the death.
But Robinson denied it was a trend he needed to address.
"We were up 30-6. What's a team going to do when they go down 30-6? They're going to increase their risk, they're going to try some stuff," Robinson said.
"What's our reaction? We had 13 guys out there that were fresh, it was a stop-start game. Fatigue wasn't playing a part for the most part.
"We should have known what was coming, nullified it, pressured them and we should have gone on with it."
However Stuart suggested he foresaw the Roosters taking their foot off the gas and was disappointed his side let the match get away from them in the first half.
"The weight of possession and penalty count in the first half blew us away," Stuart said.
"We spoke about it all week, it was going to be (decided) on the back end of the game.
"Because they let a few teams back into it after blowing them away in the first-half, we spoke about it during the week that it was going to be won in the second half. But we had to start well."
The Roosters were scintillating in the first-half, inspired by Mitchell, who crossed for a double, and James Tedesco, who finished with three try assists and one try.
But tries to Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Jack Wighton and Michael Oldfield in 17 minutes set up a grandstand finish.
The Raiders had a chance to level it in the last minute when Nick Cotric broke through on the left edge and they looked certain to score before he lobbed the ball forward to an open Jarrod Croker.
Raiders winger Jordan Rapana also suffered a suspected PCL tear however the severity of his problem wasn't known.
Share
