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Scott Bailey

Roosters make statement in 10-minute attack of Warriors

Dom Young scored a double as the Roosters crushed the Warrions 38-18. (Steven Markham/AAP PHOTOS)

Trent Robinson has warned the Sydney Roosters' best attack is still to come after his side made it 138 points scored in three weeks with a 38-18 win over the Warriors at Allianz Stadium.

Among premiership favourites before the season, the Roosters are quickly showing this could be the year they are able to fulfil their potential.

They ran in four tries in the space of 10 minutes on Sunday, with their right edge firing and Joey Manu close to unstoppable.

Making matters worse for the visitors was a pectoral muscle injury suffered by Shaun Johnson, who played through the pain before leaving the field late.

There are no such issues for the Roosters, who have now set up a mouth-watering Magic Round clash with Cronulla next Saturday night.

With close to the best side on paper in the NRL, the Tri-colours spluttered through the opening seven rounds of this year's competition.

But in the past three weeks they have exploded with a point-scoring spree against St George Illawarra, Brisbane and the Warriors.

Angus Crichton.
Angus Crichton was one of two Roosters to score a double in the emphatic defeat of the Warriors. (Steven Markham/AAP PHOTOS)

After a Luke Keary charge down, the Roosters ran in four tries between the fifth and 15th minutes while only having to make one tackle in defence.

Manu was particularly dangerous, skipping outside rival centre Adam Pompey in the lead-ups to the opening two tries.

Both times he put Young into space, with the winger scoring one himself then passing back infield for Crichton to complete another.

Young had another try when Sam Walker put him over from a scrum play, before Crichton chased down a Keary grubber kick for the Roosters' fourth.

Another try came in the second half when Young broke 80 metres downfield. 

Dallin Watene-Zelezniak hunted him down, but from the play-the-ball, Walker dispatched a long cross-field kick for Daniel Tupou to go over untouched.

Dominic Young of the Roosters catches the ball against the Warriors.
Dom Young wins a high ball, in a match the Roosters dominated in all areas. (Steven Markham/AAP PHOTOS)

Penrith and Brisbane remain favourites for this year's competition, but the Roosters now firmly belong in that conversation. 

While their right dominated on Sunday, their best try came when Manu went left and found fellow centre Joseph Aukuso-Suaali, who put James Tedesco over.

Another came down the left late on when Keary chipped ahead and Walker was there to scoop up the ball and score.

"We're always evolving and trying to get better," Robinson said.

"You need to have strings to pull in the NRL at different times, depending on what the conditions are, the opposition you're playing against, the game situation.

"And some of the important combination work we're doing really, really well. 

"Now it's about layering on some of the strings to pull in different sorts of games.

"So we're going to continue on in the mindset that we've been attacking probably the last six weeks and keep improving on the tools to manage the game."

The Warriors had a few good moments in the second half, but never looked in the contest.

Instead, they were left to rue their lacklustre defence early and errors ending their best two first-half attacking raids.

Preliminary-finalists last year, Andrew Webster's men have now gone five games without a win, and have the daunting task of facing Penrith next week.

"We looked like we were there to play and then we got the ball charged down," Webster said. 

"We didn't handle that period at all. They absolutely destroyed us in that period. 

"We couldn't resist what they were throwing at us and we made it so hard on ourselves."

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