Some outstanding centre play and a hat trick of tries from game breaker Charles Paxton saw the Roosters pass safely to the second round of the play offs in what turned out to be an ill tempered encounter.
The early exchanges were evenly split with the visitors opening the scoring in the 5th minute after the home side gave away a penalty on the 5th tackle for lying on. Some sustained pressure from the Greenwich forwards resulted in scrum half Joe Ludkin stepping in under the posts.
The home side hit back straight away with two quick tries through some fantastic forward play by front row forward, Ross Thompson. The first saw Thompson crash over out wide after the visitors knocked the ball on on their own 25-yard line. The second again came from a Thompson break on left, a superb off load allowing winger Oli Moorhouse over in the corner.
The tide turned once more, when Greenwich Centre Ismael Edwards came up on the end of a great kick from stand off Jim Hardy, before Charles Paxton opened his account following two penalties and a break on the blind side by Hooker Andrew Dean.
For the next half hour of the game, persistent indiscipline and continuous dissent towards the referee from the visitors ruined what had so far been a great tie. Three Greenwich sin binnings and one sending, off all for dissent followed by continued post match aggravation from some of the Greenwich imports, something I have never seen in 25 years of following Rugby League, ruined the spectacle. Behaviour resembling the Premier League not the Rugby Football League was an embarrassment and has no place in our great game.
Indiscipline aside, the Roosters gave the visitors a hard lesson in back play during the second half. Charles Paxton completed his hat-trick and further tries were added by Jack Blackley, Michael Drake, Michael Sykes and Jamie Noble. The pick of which was the Noble try after Jon Paxton side stepped half a dozen defenders on a last tackle power play en route to putting Noble in under the posts.
Interviewed after the game, Roosters coach Ian Hill praised his team for their first half display, but conceded that the second half performance will require some work if they are to beat minor premiers, Bedford Tigers, in the Eastern region divisional final next weekend.