Ruthless Sydney Roosters show why they are best team in world - Gareth Ellis

Yet St Helens were great on Saturday night in that 20-12 defeat and the contest was a really good advert for rugby league as a whole.

Saints were fantastic, especially middle men Luke Thompson and Alex Walmsley who really took it to the more renowned pack of Siosiua Taukeiaho, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and co.

I thought they had a really good dig and it was a really exciting game. For long periods Saints were right in it and will probably rue a few missed chances in the end.

On the night, Roosters were just more clinical. When they got their chances they took them. But the game was there and, particularly in the second half, it was very reminiscent of the Australian Grand Final when Canberra Raiders were the dominant team; Saints were like that but then Roosters just have a real resilience about them.

They hung in, held Saints up over the line a couple of times, tackled them into touch a couple of times on the tryline and then in one moment broke through the middle to score and stretched the game out to eight points.

It’s just moments where they have an ability to hang in games and hang in there some more, work hard for each other and as they get that chance it’s ‘Bang!’ They put points on you. That one moment probably did not only break the Saints defence but a lot of their players’ hearts as well.

It probably won them the game and it’s testament to a team who are able to produce those moments when under the cosh.

They were just fantastic especially when you consider that was their first game since last year’s Grand Final.

Saints had a few games under their belt and were very good against us the week before.

Yet Roosters had not played a game of any sorts. It shows just how good they are as a team but it’s something they’ve been doing for a number of years now and are well-on with that.

They showed signs they will be there or thereabouts again this year. They are the first team to win a World Club Challenge back to back and are now looking to be the first team to win three NRLs on the spin. I know they will have their sights on. They are certainly in position to become history-makers and have the quality when you look at one to 17. James Tedesco at the back, arguably the best player in the world, Luke Keary in the halves, that pack ...

If they do end up doing it again they will definitely go down in history as one of the greatest teams there’s ever been.

Having spent time over there training with them the other year, they are the benchmark. I went to Melbourne Storm, too, and you can see why they are both so successful.

They have a coach who is very passionate about the game; Trent Robinson is very smart and gets the best out of his players and they are in a good position on and off the field. I spoke to Danny McGuire who also visited Roosters recently over Christmas and he said, too, that with the intensity in their training due to the competition and the amount of players they have got, they are at a different level.

With regards the future of the WCC, we need to create more event-type games like this that entice the crowd. We are a traditional sport and I am a big advocate for tradition and history. But I think we need to make more events of games and really draw in the crowds.

The weekend’s game was at St Helens and it got 16,000, a decent crowd. But if we did it right it would warrant a 30,000 attendance. We’ve had that sort of number in the past and if we get it right we could easily achieve that; people in this country enjoy watching the NRL and can probably watch more of that than they can Super League.

There’s definitely a market for it and it definitely has a place. And it can get bigger and better.

Trent Robinson spoke well about it after the game and when you have people like that - at the top of the game - speaking so highly about it and has a real respect for Super League having coached the Catalans Dragons, we can probably make more of it.

There’s no reason why the World Club Challenge and St Helens v Sydney Roosters can’t be Super League v NRL and England v Australia; there’s a product there that won’t just appeal to those two sets of supporters.

Sure plenty of others would love to go watch that kind of event,