Sydney Roosters won a stunning NRL qualifying final 19-15 in golden point in a match that lasted 100 minutes at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday.
Shaun Kenny-Dowall's 60-metre run after intercepting a Liam Fulton pass sealed the win in front a crowd of 33,315.
However, the Tigers will wonder
how they lost a game they dominated for the opening 55 minutes before letting the Todd Carney-inspired Roosters back into the contest.
Braith Anasta's monster 35-metre field goal from just inside the left touchline took the game into golden point - for the first time in finals history - and after both sides missed two field goal attempts, Kenny-Dowall pounced to seal a magnificent fightback from Brian Smith's men.
The Roosters spent almost all of the first half camped in their own half as the Tigers dominated but only had a 10-2 lead to show for their efforts after four tries were rubbed out by the video referee.
Gareth Ellis was at the thick of things in the opening quarter, having three four-pointers ruled out and placed on report for a high shot on Carney.
The resulting penalty was converted by former Canberra man but the Tigers continued to dominate with Blake Ayshford held up by Anthony Minichiello when he looked certain to score.
Tempers flared in the 13th minute when Benji Marshall threw a punch at Mitchell Pearce in the build up to a try that looked to have been scored by Ellis and was subsequently ruled out.
Lote Tuqiri finally got the Tigers off the mark in the 27th minute with a try in the left corner after good work from the impressive Robert Lui and Blake Ayshford before Beau Ryan added a second just prior to halftime.
The second half started in a similar fashion with Ayshford intercepting a Mitch Aubusson pass eight minutes after the restart to race 70 metres to the line.
Robbie Farah then kicked a field goal after to open up a 15-2 lead after Benji Marshall missed his second conversion of the game.
However, the Tigers dominance started to wane, and with Carney becoming more involved in attack, the Roosters started to come back into the game.
Carney regathered his own grubber kick and then switched the ball to Anasta who charged over for his sixth try of the season.
Mitchell Pearce then brought the Roosters fans to life with a 40-metre run to the line with Carney adding the extras to make it a one-point game.
With Marshall forced to limp off with a worrying-looking knee injury, the Tigers headed towards the end of normal time with 12 men having used all of their interchanges and hanging on for dear life.
A controversial decision by referee Shayne Hayne to not penalise Simon Dwyer for a bell ringer of a hit on Jared Waerea-Hargreaves appeared to have secured the Tigers victory.
But from the resulting scrum Tigers' backrower Chris Heighington failed to pick the ball up, the Roosters pounced and the ball went wide to Anasta who bisected the posts as the clock struck zero.
SYDNEY ROOSTERS 19 (B Anasta S Kenny-Dowall M Pearce tries T Carney 3 goals B Anasta field goal) bt WESTS TIGERS 15 (B Ayshford B Ryan L Tuqiri tries B Marshall goal R Farah field goal) in golden-point extra time at Sydney Football Stadium. Referee: Matt Cecchin, Shayne Hayne. Crowd: 33,315
- AAP
Braith Anasta of the Rooster kicked a last second dropgoal that took the game into golden point. Photo / Getty Images
Sydney Roosters won a stunning NRL qualifying final 19-15 in golden point in a match that lasted 100 minutes at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday.
Shaun Kenny-Dowall's 60-metre run after intercepting a Liam Fulton pass sealed the win in front a crowd of 33,315.
However, the Tigers will wonder
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