Roosters soar into second with win over Titans

The Sydney Roosters have climbed to second on the NRL ladder with a commanding 48-20 victory over the Gold Coast Titans. 

Trent Robinson's side was superb in running in nine tries to four to blow their opponents off the park and leapfrog the Panthers on the standings.

With the Raiders and Rabbitohs to come in the last two games of the season, the Roosters are perfectly poised to finish the campaign in second and enjoy a home final in the opening week of the post-season. 

Sunday's win, however, may have come at a cost with centre Joseph-Aukuso Sua'ali'i suffering a shoulder injury in the first half and four players placed on report. 

Initial reports from the Roosters suggest the centre's injury is not serious and they are hopeful it is just a stinger. 

The side faces a nervous wait for the Match Review Committee to release the charge sheet on Monday morning after prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was placed on report and sent to the sin bin for a high tackle on former teammate Sam Verrills.

The veteran was playing his first game since Round 18 after serving a four-game ban for a high tackle in the win over the Dragons. Waerea-Hargreaves is playing in his final season in the NRL and his poor record could work against him as he hopes to return to the field this year.

Sua'ali'i and Daniel Tupou were also put on report for high tackles while Spencer Leniu was on report for a shoulder charge.

Sunday's result officially put an end to the Titans slim playoff hopes, with Des Hasler's side now six points outside the eight with just two games remaining. 

It was a disappointing performance for a side celebrating Kieran Foran reaching the 300-game milestone last weekend with 19,286 fans turning out for the Gold Coast's final home game of the season. 

The Roosters led by 16 at the break after an eventful first-half featuring seven tries and plenty of end-to-end action. 

Gold Coast levelled the scores at 10-all when Alofiana Khan-Pereira raced 95 metres to cross for his second of the match in the 26th minute.

Errors and ill-discipline, however, proved costly for the hosts and two tries to Tupou and one to Sam Walker allowed the Roosters to kick out to a 26-10 half-time lead.

Roosters skipper James Tedesco scored less than five minutes into the second half to break any hopes of a Titans second-half fightback and put his side up by 22 points. 

From there, Angus Crichton added two more and Sitili Tupouniua another while Keano Kini scored for the Gold Coast in the 49th minute and Khan-Pereira completed his hat-trick in the 77th minute.