Bonding inspires Roosters defence
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves believes the Sydney Roosters impenetrable defence against the Warriors on Saturday night was a by-product of team bonding sessions that have helped get their season back on track.
The Roosters continued their struggles with scoring points, and relied entirely on an explosive five minute period before halftime to secure both of their tries in the 13-6 victory, but Waerea-Hargreaves said the win was all about the team's mateship.
The club's forwards went out for dinner and a movie mid-week as part of an initiative led by captain Braith Anasta to turn their season around.
"And I believe if we're bonding we're going to be playing for each other," the New Zealand international said.
"It just showed out there when there was a few errors, we stuck together and we scrambled really well.
"We all fought really hard for each other and that's what it came down to, bonding and our mateship that we've got here.
"It just shows we're capable of pulling through a good win.
"... Braith said to us earlier in the week 'Boys, let's get it going, we've got our season on the line and we've got to start this weekend, you can't wait for each other you've got to step up and do it yourself'."
Anasta revealed a bit more of exactly what he asked of his team to earn just their fourth win of the season.
"We had to get a bit tough on ourselves this week (after the loss to North Queensland) and put our hands up individually and take responsibility for our own actions," he said.
"Regardless of all the rest we had to toughen up a bit and I think that showed on the field tonight.
"Everyone took ownership of their own performance, we've got a long way to go and we've got a lot of improvement and I think that's a huge positive. The boys should be really excited about the next few weeks."
After withstanding the in-form Warriors, who were chasing their sixth straight win, for the opening 40 minutes, the Roosters cracked early in the second half before the wall went up again and repelled anything the Warriors threw at it.
"I think it was just a tough night overall, especially defensively," Warriors skipper Simon Mannering said.
"The Roosters played a really good game and stuck to their guns - we put a lot of pressure on them in that second half and they turned up, and probably deserved to win the game."
Anasta said the Roosters could work their way back into contention this year if they maintained their current level of defensive pressure.
"We can take a lot of confidence from only letting six points in today, and over the last few weeks our defence has been awesome," he said.
"Defence wins competitions ... it gets you a long way in a competition by having great defence. We should really build on that."
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