NRL: Rampant Sydney Roosters thrash Brisbane Broncos 59-0
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By Sky Sports Rugby League
Last Updated: 04/06/20 1:33pm
Sydney Roosters handed Brisbane Broncos their heaviest-ever defeat as the defending NRL champions ran riot in a 59-0 triumph at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday.
The visitors shook off the late withdrawal of star full-back James Tedesco, who woke up with a high temperature on Thursday morning, to make it back-to-back wins since the 2020 season resumed, overcoming an inexperienced Broncos side missing several key players too.
Kyle Flanagan racked up 22 points alone - the highest individual points tally of his career so far - thanks to nine conversions and a try, while Angus Crichton doubled up for the visitors as well.
The Roosters did not look back after making a flying start with two tries inside the opening 10 minutes, the first of which came when Brett Morris - shifted to full-back in place of Tedesco - set brother Josh up to finish with just four minutes on the clock.
Morris was again on hand to provide an assist for Joseph Manu's converted score five minutes later, with Victor Radley crashing through after 18 minutes to punish the Broncos as errors started to mount for the home team.
Flanagan got involved when he set up second-rower Crichton for his first try in the 25th minute and then got over himself five minutes later, with his conversion and Luke Keary's drop goal on the stroke of half time taking the lead to 29-0 at the break.
There was no let-up when play resumed as Isaac Liu sent stand-off Keary racing away to finish a devastating length-of-the-field counter-attack from the reigning premiers three minutes into the second half.
Things went from bad to worse for Brisbane as Jesse Arthars was sin-binned in the 53rd minute following a string of back-to-back infringements by the hosts close to their line, with forwards Lindsay Collins and Crichton adding to the Roosters' tally while the hosts were down to 12 men.
Daniel Tupou's try 10 minutes from time took Trent Robinson's men past the half-century mark and Brett Morris rounded off the try-scoring late on, while at the other end the Roosters held firm in the closing stages to deny the Broncos even a consolation score.