THE Roosters’ senior grades were brought crashing back to earth by a ferocious Bay Tigers showing on Sunday.
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The Roosters travelled north to McKay Park with the Bay Tigers desperate to keep in touch with the competition.
The Roosters fell to the Bay in both the first grade (18-25) and reserve grade (14-15) matches.
The only joy for the visiting club was the outstanding form of its under 18s outfit to maintain its undefeated streak.
The under 18s posted a scintillating 60-24 victory after the Bay posted the first 10 points of the contest.
Officials said the Roosters were left “shell shocked” by the upset loss to the Tigers.
Bay captain-coach Mason Harrison spearheaded the first raid of the game early in the contest when fullback Mick Tadich raced over wide out to score.
The Roosters were then left to lament as centre Mitch Freeman left two defenders in his wake with a slicing run to touch down.
With the conversion, the Bay had the start it needed.
The Roosters suffered an early loss of centre Shawn Bell soon after and he was replaced by Jackson Whitby making his first grade debut for the Roosters off the interchange.
The young winger was straight into the thick of battle with a charging run at the Bay pack in an encouraging opening display.
The Tigers were eating up valuable metres with hard-running prop Gerard Dennis putting in plenty of legwork.
Dennis bulldozed his way through the line to get the home side up 14-0.
Jack Leggatt was proving a handful for the Roosters with some strong runs and jarring defence.
The Roosters were looking for chances to counter-attack, but were hindered again as Freeman crossed for his second to lead 18-0.
With increasing desperation, the Roosters were working through the ruck, but the revitalised Tigers proved hard to stop.
It was made even more evident soon after when Dennis broke the line and gave Tadich a 50-metre sprint before the break to lead 24-0.
The Roosters finally hit back through Luke Dowdle, who ran onto a short ball and hit the chalk 24-6 at half-time.
Flashy ball movement saw the Bay find the line from the restart, but the try was disallowed.
The Roosters were starting to gain some composure with halves Blake Robinson and James Bower-Scott coming into the game.
After sustained pressure it was Bower-Scott picking up his captain-coach Ryan Apps to score a nice try.
The Roosters became increasingly desperate to post points, but Bower-Scott was cut short of the line by Tadich.
However, the Roosters then pushed wide and fullback Craig Matthews found space to score with 12 minutes left on the clock.
The Tigers were desperate for the points and locked in a field goal with just minutes left to play to ensure their lead.
“They were too good on the day they had us on the back foot from the opening whistle,” Apps said.
“And we failed to counter on some opportunities that came our way.”
The reserve grade Roosters were also in trouble early and trailed 10-0.
Despite some solid runs from Luke Hoskins and Billy Hudson, the Bay centre was causing havoc on the right flanks.
The Roosters fought back hard and found themselves on the wrong side of 14-12, but with time to spare.
The Roosters opted for the kick off a penalty and levelled the odds 14-14.
Some unfortunate handling errors saw the Bay pick up lots of possession and veteran Charlie Nye slotted a field goal to lock in a 15-14 win.
Bega captain-coach Wayne Northey will be looking for answers from his side, which has now lost two in a row.
The club’s top two finish is now in doubt with two challenging matches prior to the semi-finals.
The news in the Under 18 camp was also looking bleak early as the Bay raced away to a 10-0 lead.
Bega coughed up a ball from the kick off and the Bay found the overlap through their right winger.
The Roosters steadied and exciting young wing prospect Joel Tamatea found his way to the line in a strong run.
Soon after Toby Hart darted over in the corner and the Roosters had levelled the scores.
The Roosters burst to life and controlled the match from that point on.
Declan Bower-Scott had plenty of support and stacked on the points for Bega to lead 24-10.
Hart kept up his excellent form to finish off a triple and help extend the lead for the visitors in the second half.
Jackson Whitby was heavily involved, while Will Picker backed up from the under 16s win in minor league carnival.
The Roosters will now go into a week off with the wet weather round being played out at Eden where the homeside will face off against the Moruya juggernaut.
