Round 5

The win was the Warriors' third in succession after back to back defeats of Wests Tigers and the Broncos, while Johnson's 15th career field goal secured his 100th NRL victory.

The Cowboys dominated most of the game and led 18-6 until just before halftime, when a Chanel Harris-Tavita 40:20 kick gave the Warriors a late opportunity to score and they capitalised.

The lead see-sawed in the second half until the match was decided in golden point when Johnson landed his third field goal attempt.

Match snapshot

In heavy rain in Newcastle, the home side looked to have scored first through Dom Young but the try was overturned for Tyson Frizell's lead run taking out Kieran Foran.

Instead Manly scored the only two tries of the opening half with Dylan Walker's short ball helping Andrew Davey over and a pinpoint Daly Cherry-Evans kick sitting up nicely for Morgan Harper and a 10-0 lead at the break.

A series of ruck penalties and set restarts given away by the Sea Eagles invited the Knights to attack after the resumption and Kalyn Ponga crossed after a nice sequence of offloading.

Kevin Walters will be most concerned by his side's defence which has leaked nine tries in the past two games, and the Roosters' form against the Cowboys will give the Broncos mentor some sleepless nights this week.

Injuries to Albert Kelly and Pat Carrigan compounded the issues for the Broncos and their depth will be tested as they look to get things back on track at home.

The Roosters rolled into Townsville and produced some of their best footy of the season to send an ominous warning to all their rivals that a top-four finish is very much on their radar in 2022.

Nathan Brown's men conceded just two tries in round three and one in round four and it's that sort of defensive focus they will need to call on to subdue the likes of Val Holmes, Tom Dearden and Jason Taumalolo.

Their attack looked more threatening with Shaun Johnson back in the No.7 and Chanel Harris-Tavita finding his feet at five-eighth.

The Cowboys were outclassed by the Roosters in Townsville but still sit fifth on the ladder with a 2-2 record and a solid points differential.

CRU Competition Coordinator Paul Joseph said despite of the “no crowd” restrictions games have progressed smoothly since competition started 4 weeks ago.

Joseph said round five this weekend marks halfway through the 10 weeks normal rounds of games with five more rounds of before the final series commence.

He said the Women’s division which kicked off with the 7s competition last week, will head straight to 10s rugby after round 6 before going into their finals.