The second of Sunday night’s NRL Round 25 matches is between Sydney Roosters and Gold Coast Titans. The opening kick is set to commence at 3:00pm local time with the game to be played at Allianz Stadium. The home team the Sydney Roosters are the current favourites in the market. View our preview and teams for the game between Sydney Roosters and Gold Coast Titans.

Allianz Stadium

Sunday 3pm

Sydney Roosters $1.04 vs Gold Coast Titans $11.00 at Sportsbet Australia get a $250 FREE BET on this match

Sydney Roosters $1.03 vs Gold Coast Titans $14.00 at Luxbet Australia get a $500 FREE BET on this match

Odds Comparison by NRL Odds:

Sydney Roosters	1.04	1.03	1.03	1.03	1.04	1.04
Gold Coast Titans	11.00	12.00	14.00	12.00	11.00	11.00

Preview:

Sydney will not be able to take the field quick enough here and erase the memory of last week’s lost to the Sharks.

They were blown off the park early and whilst they did manage to claw back the margin in the second half, the Roosters were never a realistic chance off pulling the Sharks back in.

It was the Chooks first loss in nine weeks and will serve as a timely wake up call to the Roosters that there’s still some work to be done to get to the Grand Final.

Feeling their wrath this week will be an under-manned Titans outfit who during the week, had to seek salary cap exception from the NRL so they could field a side due to their rising injury list.

After a win over West Tigers and a surprise victory over Canterbury, the Titans have fallen short against the Cowboys and last week, agonisingly so against the Warriors (24 – 22).

Those two losses has placed them just outside of the eight in ninth spot on points differential.

With Sydney this week and Melbourne in Melbourne in the final round, the Titans are on borrowed time.

These teams have taken it in turns of winning matches the six matches played between the two since 2010 and if that trend were to continue, it would be – and probably will be – a Roosters victory here.

Teams:

Sydney Roosters:
Anthony Minichiello, Daniel Tupou, Michael Jennings, Shaun Kenny-Dowall, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, James Maloney, Mitchell Pearce, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Jake Friend, Sam Moa, Mitchell Aubusson, Sonny Bill Williams, Frank-Paul Nuuausala. Interchange: Daniel Mortimer, Aidan Guerra, Isaac Liu, Dylan Napa

Gold Coast Titans:
David Mead, Kevin Gordon, Brad Takairangi, Jamie Dowling, Anthony Don, Aidan Sezer, Albert Kelly, Luke Douglas, Beau Falloon, Ryan James, Greg Bird, Ben Ridge, Nate Myles. Interchange: David Taylor, Luke Bailey, TBC, Matt Srama

Sezer relishing Roosters halves challenge

Depleted in other areas, at least injury-hit Gold Coast can rely on boasting a full-strength halves pairing for Sunday’s crucial NRL clash with the Sydney Roosters.

The Titans could only name a 16-man squad on Tuesday as they try to overcome a hefty injury toll but, with Albert Kelly’s successful return in last weekend’s narrow loss to the Warriors, halves are not a problem for coach John Cartwright.

Five-eighth Aidan Sezer says it was exciting to renew the partnership after Kelly’s three-week absence with a sternum injury.

And he says the young duo are itching to test themselves against Roosters pair Mitchell Pearce and James Maloney, who also teamed up for NSW in this year’s State of Origin series.

“Looking forward to that challenge,” Sezer told reporters.

“They’re the incumbent NSW halves pairing. Me and Alby, being young blokes, we like to test ourselves against the best.

“It’ll be a good challenge for us and hopefully we can just improve on getting back to basics in our chemistry, in our partnership together – just put in a good performance for the 80 minutes.”

The Titans took a break from their normal routine on Wednesday and shared their training run with members of the Gold Coast Suns at the AFL team’s base in Carrara.

Suns midfielder and former rugby league star Karmichael Hunt was among those who took part, and there must have been some temptation to see if the AFL club would loan the former Kangaroo and Queensland star to the Titans for the weekend.

But while the club’s injury woes have them struggling to put a full team together, Sezer is remaining confident the Titans can beat the Roosters to keep their bid for a finals spot on track.

“That’s why they’re all in the squad,” Sezer said.

“All the boys are talented in their own right and, whoever the coaching staff put in, we know they’ll do a job and what they’ll be capable of.”