Tedesco stars in Roosters rout

James Tedesco scored a hat-trick for the Roosters against the Bulldogs

James Tedesco marked his return to the Sydney Roosters side with a hat-trick as they brushed aside Canterbury Bulldogs 42-6 at Bankwest Stadium on Monday.

The match had been postponed from the previous day due to a coronavirus scare involving one of Canterbury’s players, with Roosters full-back Tedesco in action again having missed the 59-0 win over Brisbane Broncos due to waking up ahead of that game with a high temperature.

But he was back to play a starring role for the reigning NRL premiers as three tries from last year’s Dally M medallist and two from Angus Crichton helped Trent Robinson’s men make it three wins from three since the competition resumed.

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Some great skills were on display as Kyle Flanagan touched down for Sydney Roosters’ second try against Canterbury Bulldogs

It took barely three minutes for Sydney to take the lead in the match, making the most of an early set restart followed by a penalty for Tedesco to set up Crichton for his first of the night, with Kyle Flanagan kicking the first of seven conversions as well.

Promising 21-year-old half-back Flanagan then went over four minutes later as the Roosters took advantage of broken play, followed by Crichton taking a deft one-handed offload from Tedesco to help make it 18-0 inside the first 15 minutes.

The Bulldogs steadied themselves after this but were undone again in the 25th minute as interchange man Sitili Tupouniua burst through the defence before flicking a pass out to support runner Tedesco for him to finish.

Canterbury then had a try ruled on the stroke of half time as replays showed Christian Crichton was forced into touch by Daniel Tupou before he could ground the ball, leaving Dean Pay’s side trailing 24-0 at the break.

It was a scrappy start to the second half from both teams, although the Roosters got on the board again on the hour mark when Josh Morris and Tedesco combined for the former to send the latter over for his second of the night.

The Bulldogs did hit back through a converted try for Kieran Foran, but Tedesco completed his haul in the 70th minute when he broke through a tackle attempt from Dylan Napa to dive over and Brett Morris chased down a grubber kick from Flanagan to round off the scoring three minutes from time.