The under-manned Roosters have humbled the full-strength Sharks in Gosford with a stunning 42-16 victory.
Debutant Xavier Va'a scored with only his second touch in first grade, with Victor Radley providing the assist while running for 185 metres on his 150th NRL appearance for the Roosters.
Daniel Tupou scored two identical tries in the first 10 minutes to put the Roosters on the front foot.
Then, Hugo Savala finished off a magical right-side move, highlighted by a phenomenal flick pass out the back of the hand from Tedesco, to help conclude phenomenal first half.
Ronaldo Mulitalo was sin binned for taking Mark Nawaqanitawase high in the build up to that try and will likely face sanctions from the judiciary.
Daniel Tupou scored two idential tries. (Getty Images: Darrian Traynor)
Nawaqanitawase shrugged that off to score a brilliant try of his own in the corner, while Va'a's thrilling score extended the Roosters lead after the break to the delight of Va'a's hundreds of supporters.
However, the familiar wobbles returned for the Roosters around the hour mark as KL Iro and Ronaldo Mulitalo bought the Sharks back into contention.
The Roosters weathered that storm though and made the game safe through a brilliant try to veteran skipper Tedesco.
Nawaqanitawase had one more flash of brilliance to add the cherry to the top of the cake, bursting into life from a standing start to provide a back-handed pass to Dom Young to score in the corner.
"Back down to earth with a thud," Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said.
"I don't make excuses ... we got outperformed, and it was a real attitude check for us that we're going to have to work on."
'It's not where you want to be': Panthers bottom of the ladder
Dylan Lucas scored two tries in as many minutes. (Getty Images: Mark Evans)
Earlier, Newcastle thrashed defending premiers Penrith in Bathurst, relegating the Panthers to bottom of the NRL ladder to continue the round of shocks.
Dylan Lucas scored a first half hat-trick after the superb Fletcher Sharpe, who starred at fullback in the absence of Origin star Kalyn Ponga, opened the scoring.
"I'm so happy for them, one by one as they came into the sheds you can just see everything: Relief, certainly happiness," coach Adam O'Brien said on Saturday night.
"I know a lot will be written that it was understrength Penrith but seven of our best players are out. So I don't want to hear that story.
"We're not out of it [the slump] yet, there'll be more written about us at some point, we've just got to focus on putting in performances like that more often."
The Knights were unrecognisable from the team so embarrassed at home last time out, running hard and straight throughout but led by they .
Lucas was superb for the Knights, running for 212 metres, with 65 of those post-contact on his way to a career-first hat-trick.
Sharpe was the stand-out though, running for 284 metres from 21 carries, with four line breaks to tear the Panthers apart.
While Penrith debutant Harrison Hassett scored the only try of the game for Penrith, a rare highlight for the Panthers who dropped to bottom of the ladder, things didn't go so well for young Paul Bryan, who dislocated his shoulder off his very first play.
Incredibly, the 22-year-old from Mackay still had 27 metres and made 23 tackles in his 19 minutes of game time.
"I'm just super disappointed with the start," Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said.
"It's the worst start we could find. Confidence was down early and it became a pretty tough night.
"It's not where you want to be," Cleary said of being bottom of the ladder.
"We've already shown this year that we have the potential to be doing much better. But you can only rely on potential for so long."
Look back on how all the action unfolded in our blog.
Thanks for being here with us for tonight's action.
And what action we saw, two more shocks to add to this round of tipping hell.
The Roosters were phenomenal tonight, the mix of youth and experience more than making up for the Origin absentees.
And how about the Knights, who were unrecognisable from the team that were just woeful last week and have been pretty hopeless all year.
We'll be back tomorrow for more action from arguably the game of the weekend between the Warriors and Raiders, so look forward to that.
But from me this evening, it's good night.
Four games, four shocks
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By Simon Smale
Ya gotta love origin time - yet another win from the bottom third of the table! Thanks Simon, it's been a blast, see you next time.
- Mike
It's been a real round of footy so far.
It's been one hell of a round of footy so far
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By Simon Smale
Like a scene from A Clockwork Orange ,,, I heard the doctors saying "he claims the Knights murdered the Panthers and his Roosters bashed the Sharks ...... get the straight-jacket and 200 mls of sedative."
After a less than optimal working week this has been a tonic. Thanks heaps Simon.
- Old timer
If that's not what football is for, then what are we doing here?
Pleasure to have you with us Old timer.
It's not been a great week for lots of people in NSW due to the floods and what not, but some of the results this weekend have been tremendous for the neutrals.
Key Event
FT: Roosters add to round of shocks with stunning win against Sharks
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By Simon Smale
(Getty Images)
The under-strength Roosters have completed a stunning victory over the full-strength Sharks in Gosford, winning 42-16.
Daniel Tupou scored two identical tries in the corner to get the Roosters started, before Cameron McInnes got the Sharks on the board.
Hugo Savala scored just before the break before Mark Nawaqanitawase and Xavier Va'a — with just his second touch in first grade — pushed the lead out to 32-6.
KL Iro and Ronaldo Mulitalo scored tries as the Sharks regained a foothold in the game.
But James Tedesco finished off a brilliant burst to make the game safe, before from Nawaqanitawase magic set up Dom Young to score in the corner.
80' WHAT A TRY TO FINISH!
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By Simon Smale
That was brilliant from Nawaqanitawase!
Absolutely brilliant.
Steep offloaded to Nawaqanitawase after gathering a loose ball.
Nawaqanitawase was at a standstill. So was the defence of the Sharks, and he suddenly burst into life, the sevens pedigree coming to the fore, he gets to the outside of KL Iro, passes out the back of the hand and Dom Young scores.
Brilliant.
The Roosters win it 42-16.
77' TEDESCO MAKES IT SAFE!
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By Simon Smale
Tremendous Teddy!
A lovely line break right up the middle from Blake Steep.
He has Tedesco on his right and he scores!
Lovely stuff from the veteran!
The move started with a neat little dart out of Benaiah
Ioelu
at dummy half too.
The kick is good and it's all of a sudden 38-16 and the game is safe for the Roosters.
And in back play, Tedesco celebrates by throwing up. Lovely.
75' Penalty Sharks!
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By Simon Smale
Will Kennedy cops one around the face - sort of.
Victor Radley was flying in which made it look a lot worse than it was.
The replay didn't really show Kennedy in the best light - it looked like Radley did everything he could to avoid making contact with the Sharks fullback.
72' Penalty Sharks! BUT OVERTURNED!
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By Simon Smale
The Sharks are enjoying their left side and that's where they go.
It's KL Iro who suddenly is in space off the reverse pass from Ronaldo Mulitalo.
Tedesco got his hand in there but was it just part of the tackle?
IT WAS!
The Bunker rules in favour of the Roosters there and that will be crucial!
68' Ronaldo Mulitalo scores!
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By Simon Smale
It's still on for the Sharks!
Lovely moves down the left side from the Sharks, a great step off the left foot from Ronaldo Mulitalo who crashes over Nawaqanitawase and gets the ball down.
The kick, crucially, is missed from out wide by Hynes.
It's 32-16.
Surely there's no time...
67' Tupou pinged for a high shot!
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By Simon Smale
Will Kennedy has his head taken off by Daniel Tupou in the corner.
It's a tackle that needed to be made to keep the game safe for the Roosters.
67' Sharks cough up a knock on over the try line
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By Simon Smale
KL Iro has touched down!
But I don't think it will count.
It's a knock on actually from Billy Burns, a brilliant strip tackle from Sia Wong denies the Sharks a try.
66' Penalty Sharks
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By Simon Smale
The Sharks gave away the first five penalties of the match.
Now the count is just 7-6 in favour of the Roosters.
This time it's for offside and the Sharks are on the charge again,
The Roosters are not good in the final 20 minutes of matches
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By Simon Smale
Thinkin I'll go for a swim, the Sharks are qawn I tell ya, gawn!
- Foghorn Leghorn
In fact, they fall away to the degree that they have a points differential of -82 in the last 20 minute of matches, Fox Sports just informed us.
So I'd keep the swimmers in the drawer for a bit.
60' KL Iro scores as the Sharks bite back!
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By Simon Smale
(Getty Images)
The Sharks hit back!
Addin Fonua-Boake with a big run to the line after the Roosters give the ball away through a loose carry from Siua Wong.
But then it's KL Iro who gets through a gap after a very nice delayed pass from Trindall.
The kick is good and the score is 32-12.
59' Sharks give away a penalty
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By Simon Smale
Bit going on here.
A bomb went up and Nawaqanitawase dropped it backwards over his own line, the ball gathered by the Roosters.
The Sharks hate that decision and at least two players offer some suggestions to the referee.
We can't see who Grant Atkins was pointing at but it came from the side that Trindall and Mulitalo were waiting on.
It turns a handover into a penalty.
Key Event
55' Xavier Va'a scores with his second touch in first grade!
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By Simon Smale
(Getty Images)
Amazing from Xavier Va'a!
He only came on the field a minute or so ago!
His first touch was a decent hit up right through the guts!
(Getty Images)
His second touch was to receive the ball from Radley and dive over the line, right in front of his cheering family!
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It was another Savala kick that the Sharks were woefully prepared to deal with.
It's hard to contain Daniel Tupou
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By Simon Smale
(Getty Images)
50' Nawaqanitawase scores!
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By Simon Smale
(Getty Images)
Some lovely stuff from the Roosters.
Tupou went close down the left side after a really nice tap pass from Tedesco.
Then the Roosters went right, moving the ball to centre field where Hugo Savala kicks.
Mulitalo leaps, so does Young and Nawaqanitawase, Mulitalo makes a right mess out of making the catch, knocks it on, the ball is picked up by Nawaqanitawase who reaches over to score.
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That will be satisfying for the former Wallaby, who has had to cop a fair bit from Mulitalo so far.
That's a superb kick from Sandon Smith from the sideline, just grazing the post and it's 26-6.
48' Egan Butcher left on the ground
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By Simon Smale
He leaped for the ball with Will Kennedy after a big bomb from Hugo Savala.
But he's been left on the ground in pain.
Perhaps he's winded?
Hard to tell.
44' Roosters penalty
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By Simon Smale
Ruck interference from Briton Nikora - his hand does touch the ball but the Sharks are going to challenge this.
They do challenge - and lose the challenge.
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