Roosters coach Trent Robinson says Alex Johnston’s impending record-breaking moment hasn’t been discussed at training because his side doesn’t plan on the Rabbitohs winger becoming the game’s most prolific try-scorer.
Johnston is one shy of Ken Irvine’s 212-try tally, with Friday night’s blockbuster between the game’s fiercest rivals seemingly the perfect place for him to break the record and add another chapter to the Book of Feuds.
It would be extra spicy if it were to happen at Allianz Stadium given the ongoing turf war between the two clubs as the Bunnies try to take home games to the Moore Park precinct.
The Roosters haven’t had any team meetings about ensuring Johnston doesn’t break the record on Friday, with Robinson hoping he can watch history get made from the comfort of his couch next week when Souths take on the Wests Tigers.
“To be honest, that hasn’t been brought up because our job is to allow no tries on that edge. That’s the focus for us,” Robinson said, with Johnston scoring 18 tries from 24 games against the Tricolours.
“So there’s not a sort of discussion about ‘don’t let somebody (score)’ because we don’t want tries. And so the passion about how we defend and how we improve from last week was pretty key for us.
“We don’t want him to score any tries. For me, hopefully the following week he’ll break that record. Alex is a really good person and a good man and a great footy player and he deserves everything he gets.
“So I’m really happy for him and what he’s done in the game and I look forward to celebrating hopefully on a television from a distance.”
The veteran Roosters coach didn’t want to weigh into the debate surrounding whether fans should be allowed to storm the field whenever Johnston breaks the record, with Robinson more focused about the defensive cohesion on his right edge.
Siua Wong has been brought into the back row to play next to key recruit Daly Cherry-Evans after the Roosters were exposed on the edges, with Johnston part of South Sydney’s lethal left side that includes Latrell Mitchell, David Fifita and Cody Walker.
“There were probably two things that we identified which I sort of won’t go into, but there were two things that we felt like we needed to fix to improve that edge,” Robinson replied when asked what he’d identified out of last week’s Warriors loss.
“That didn’t come up after the game, but we’ve been working on them and we needed to double down this week.”
The focus on the Roosters and Cherry-Evans has been intense this week, while the blowtorch has also been applied to Broncos coach Michael Maguire just months after he helped end their premiership drought.
The round 1 hot takes are just par for the course these days, and the best way to silence the noise is by winning.
“Round 1’s always a grand final. We’re always excited about round 1 and how big it is, but it comes with the territory. It’s great,” he said.
“I think the more we talk about it, the more interest (we generate). You guys (media) cop a lot of flak at different times, but the more you talk about it, then it builds interest.
“So I love where our game’s at, I love the interest in our game. We’re going to have to wear opinion on how we’re playing. We’re not going to like it sometimes, but (you have to) perform. That’s the only way to answer that, and that’s us week to week.”
Originally published as ‘We don’t want him to score any tries’: NRL won’t have to worry about fans storming the field if the Roosters shut down their biggest rivals