The Sydney Roosters continued their roll towards back-to-back NRL premierships with a crushing 46-12 win over the Warriors on Sunday in Auckland.

Facing a Warriors side desperate to climb from 10th and keep their season alive, the men from Bondi Junction looked like they were the ones with something to prove, scoring eight tries to hand the New Zealand-based side their biggest loss of the year.

Complacency clearly wasn’t an issue, after last week’s 48-4 thrashing of Wests Tigers, as the Roosters extended their winning streak to four games.

Credit the win to their big men.

Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Frank-Paul Nu’uausala had the 19-676 Mount Smart fans a little stunned as they bashed their way through the middle and rattled the Warriors pack early.

Their hard work paid dividends in the second half when gaping holes opened up for the Roosters to lay on three tries – to Anthony Minichiello, Sam Moa and Isaac Liu – in seven minutes to put the result beyond doubt.

It was a sad sight for a clearly defected Warriors coach Andrew McFadden.

By the time Boyd Cordner scored the Roosters’ seventh try 20 minutes from time, fans were already heading for the gates.

The result means they will stay outside the top eight before being given a shot to climb back in against the Titans next week.

That fixture is unlikely to feature winger David Fusitu’a, who dislocated his shoulder in the opening quarter.

With so much at stake, this one was always going to come down to the side that took their opportunities.

And it was the Roosters’ ability to convert good field position into points that ultimately won them two vital competition points that will allow them to make an assault on the three teams above them in the final two rounds.

Their dominance in the air through leaping wingers Daniel Tupou and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was also apparent, which is why many will question the Warriors’ decision to persist with kicks to the corners.

The difference in finishing ability between the sides was highlighted best when Michael Jennings gave the Roosters their second lead of the match after his side was awarded a penalty on halfway.

Prior to that, the Warriors were handed back-to-back penalties but wasted the golden opportunity after yet another kick went in the air but wasn’t followed up with a decent chase.

The alarms bells were first set off when Tupou was allowed to set off on an early break from his own line after defusing a Sam Tomkins bomb.

His 80-metre burst had the Warriors backpedalling at a rate of knots and stretched them enough for Aiden Guerra to plant the ball over the line.

Although it was later deemed to be a penalty try.

Having been subjected to some brutal defence in the opening exchanges, the Warriors regained their composure and launched an aerial raid that helped them equalise.

Johnson threatened to run before launching a deft bomb that was batted back by Laumape to an unmarked Tomkins to score.

Laumape scored late in the piece to add some respectability to the scoreline but the Roosters were simply too classy and showed what it takes to be a genuine title threat.