The Warriors turned DCE’s Roosters debut into a nightmare. It could get even worse

Daly Cherry-Evans and the Sydney Roosters’ right edge looked shockingly disjointed in defence and leaked far too many points against the Warriors in round one.

South Sydney have one of the best left-edge attacks in the NRL, led by a rejuvenated Latrell Mitchell.

So danger looms for the Roosters and Cherry-Evans when he gets his first taste of rugby league’s oldest and fiercest rivalries on Friday night.

If the Roosters are to notch their first win of the season, they will need Cherry-Evans – and the men defending either side of him – to avoid being picked apart like they were by half-time against the Warriors.

The 37-year-old was always going to need time to get used to the defensive systems at the Roosters.

Nor was Cherry-Evans helped when his right centre, Queensland representative Rob Toia, broke down with a foot injury last week, while Blake Steep did not have one of his better games defending inside the halfback.

There will be no excuses this week when Cherry-Evans comes face to face with South Sydney’s David Fifita, Cody Walker, Mitchell and Alex Johnston – the winger who needs just two tries to break Ken Irvine’s long-standing record.

Cherry-Evans’ teammates were backing the veteran to cope with a second onslaught, including the daunting job of stopping Mitchell.

“They’ve always been a pretty left-dominant attacking side with Cody, Latrell is out there in the centres, and Fifita has just come over – it will be a good battle for us, we weren’t good enough last week, there’s no shying away from that,” Roosters representative utility Connor Watson said.

“Rob has only played a year, but is probably one of the best defensive centres in the game. You rarely see him get beaten.

“When you lose a guy like that, it ends those combinations you’ve been working with. But that’s the NRL. As a team, regardless of who is playing, we need to do better.”

Angus Crichton, who debuted for Souths, and celebrates 200 NRL games, said it was always going to take time for Cherry-Evans to adjust to Bondi life, regardless of his experience.

“It’s a whole new system, it’s a whole new outlook on footy, everything is different,” Crichton said. “People think it’s just different colours, but a lot of work goes into coming across [to a new club]. It took me a while to find my feet when I first got here.

“You have different football philosophies. The way ‘Robbo’ [coach Trent Robinson] sees the game will be different to ‘Chez’s’ coaches in the past.

“I’ve seen how much energy Chez has, he’s super excited to play, and he’s got a new-found fire in him. I know there’s too much care and hard work here in this team for it not to come to light, and we’ll keep working hard until it does.”

As for stopping Mitchell, who has shifted from fullback to left centre, Crichton said: “Latrell is a gun, he’s a weapon. On his day, he can be the best player in the league.

“We need to make sure we’re doing everything to shut him down. We know how much he loves getting up to get a win against the Roosters.

“He’ll be fired up, their whole team will be fired up, their fan base will be fired up – we better make sure we’re fired up, too.”