Saints crushed by Aussie champions

SAINTS' hopes of regaining the World title they won two years ago were left in tatters on Friday night after meeting a fired up Roosters side, who came up with the complete performance.

Any belief that Reebok Stadium's sub-zero temperatures would leave the Aussie premiers hungry for Bondi beach back home proved little more than wishful thinking, leaving Saints silverware ambitions out in the cold

Although the scoreline reflects the complete dominance of the Roosters, arguably the best prepared Aussie club side to hit these shores, Saints really did not deserve to cop such a hiding and the scoreboard was a touch flattering to the visitors at the end.

True, Saints were poor in some areas, most notably their kicking game which was below par from the first minute of the game to the closing stages.

Having only played the French part-timers UTC and Sale in the cross-code farce coach Ian Millward was left ruing the missed chance of giving his charges a proper run out in the friendly against Widnes a fortnight ago.

This was ring-rusty Saints' first real run-out - and it showed with their attack having a pretty dull cutting edge.

But it has to be said there were some pretty fierce tackles going in there, led by Great Britain's big hitter Adrian Morley, which would have tested the inventiveness of any attack.

This highly organised and aggressive Roosters defence, which has seen off the best Down Under, was superb - and apart from three occasions looked impenetrable.

The first of those occasions came as early as the seventh minute when a brilliant handling move involving Tommy Martyn and Paul Newlove released Tony Stewart down the wing before sending Jason Hooper over for a try.

But the referee had spotted a marginal forward pass in the build up to silence the raised voices in the bulk of the 19,807 crowd.

That was followed six minutes later by a marvellous break down the right flank by Ade Gardner, who was confident enough to go for the outside before being hauled down by full back Anthony Minichiello.

Support on his inside would have yielded a four pointer instead Saints had to settle for a speculative kick from Paul Sculthorpe which just bounced away from the advancing Sean Long.

Saints' third big chance came on 27 minutes - and by this stage Saints were trailing by four points courtesy of the boot of Craig Fitzgibbon.

A beautiful piece of old Paul Newlove footwork created the half break before sending Stewart storming to the line only being stopped within a blade of grass of the whitewash.

The gaps in between seemed to be pure toil - and there was no lack of industry from Saints, particularly in defence, which as a by-product of a poor kicking game was forced to work over time.

Significantly, despite the Roosters dominance Saints kept their line intact until a fatal drop off five minutes from the interval. Just when Saints were thinking of the dressing room and warmth the Roosters claimed their first score.

It has to be said that this too was a product of initially poor decision making in attack - with Newlove being caught in possession on the sixth tackle at one end, before the Aussies stormed up the length of the field.

Annoyingly after all that toil, the Roosters' opening try came from a kick on the fifth tackle, Fitzgibbon racing onto Chris Flannery's chip.

If that was a touch jammy, their second two minutes later was a stunner with the flowing passing movement being rounded off by Morley. No wonder Saints looked gutted going in 18 points down - but there was no towels being thrown in yet.

Saints gave it their best shot in the opening stages of the second half but on 53 minutes were hit by a low punch courtesy of the new rule - which is about as stupid as they get.

Roosters were effectively rewarded for a knock on as it was deemed that Craig Wing had played it unintentionally prior to Todd Byrne collecting the loose ball and racing the length of the field. Once the coaches get to work on this one we are going to end up with the most farcical of situations, unless referees' supremo Stuart Cummings has enlisted Uri Geller to read the minds of the players.

Still such a daft law deserves an equally silly solution.

That was it, Saints were gutted, the crowd booed and three minutes later Brad Fittler collected an interception from Darren Britt to rub salt in their wounds.

After leading the Saints charge with some strong defence clearing runs, continuing his fine form from the previous week, veteran Aussie Britt really didn't deserve that misfortune.

But when it rains it pours - and just to add a final indignity the Roosters crossed again a minute from time, Todd Peyton collecting a super pass from Fittler, to give the scoreboard an even crueller look.

Still it was better to have been there and lost than be one of those sour-faced Bradford fans present, shamelessly shouting for a team from 12,000 miles away.