RUGBY LEAGUE: After a shaky start Roos captain/coach Aaron Gorrell said the team are by no means flawless, but managed to steady the ship to get the two points against the Scholars in Saturday's 10-point victory.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Roos put on a show for the first few minutes at Freebody Oval, rectifying the flood of dropped passes that plagued their round one clash against the Warriors.
The home side was attacking early and much to Gorrell's delight, made a fantastic start to the match- up 22 to nil in just over 20 minutes.
"They were pretty tough conditions, it was pretty wet and windy," Gorrell said.
"We started really well, but then they scored three tries in five minutes just before halftime."
"We were good in patches, but we just let them get back in that 10 minutes [before the break]."
Belconnen United hit the ground running in the second half and continued to fight back- reducing the margin to just ten points, at 34 to 24 with just 15 minutes to go.
Roos' Dale Turner found the try line late in the half, but a missed conversion meant visitors were still hot on their heels.
The Scholars scored in the dying minutes, but the Roos held off a comeback to run away with a 38 to 28 win.
"We need to play for a full 80 minutes and work on not shutting off and thinking the job's already done too early," Gorrell said.
"But to our credit we fought back in the last 15 to 20 minutes and when it came down to it we did put them away.
"We could've easily thrown up the white flag, but we kept fighting.
"We created a fair bit and got to where we wanted to be- we just have to do that for the full 80 (minutes)."
Englishmen Ben Shulver (1 try) and Jack Miller (5 goals) were in the Roos top performers, along with Bryan Cronan and regulars Jed Pearce and Adam Pearce (1 try).
Besides the end of half lapse in concentration Gorrell said there are a number of areas of improvement at the Roos, but added he is happy with the team's progress this early in the season.
"For a relatively new team we're going ok," Gorrell said.
"We're a long way from where we want to be, but nothing is happening that we can't fix.
"We could finish our sets a bit better, but still nothing drastic."
The introduction of new assistant coach Jack Giddings means the Roos can improve on their use of the limited interchanges, Gorrell said.
"I still haven't got the side to the right balance, it's been hard to find the right mix, but we'll get there," he said.
"And at the moment we're not using interchanges to our advantage- we only used five or something last week- so we can fix that."
The Roos tackle the Bushrangers at Greenway on Saturday, May 2, and Gorrell is hoping his star five-eighth, Jordan Macey, will be available after a stint in the US.
"I haven't seen a lot of the Bushrangers, but I'll get the tape, go from there and work out how to win," he said.
"If we keep plodding along hopefully we can pick up the two points as much as we can.
"It's early in the year though- if we keep improving and hopefully improve enough come finals time we'll be where we want to be."