The Roosters bounced back from their shock Round 1 loss to beat a sloppy and ill-disciplined Bulldogs outfit 30-12 in front of 12,000 fans at Allianz Stadium.
The first half was a scrappy and ill-discplined affair from both sides, however it was the Roosters who held their nerve when it mattered most to skip out to an 18-0 lead at the break.
The Roosters crossed after just 2 minutes after a pass by Foran went to ground deep in the Roosters half. Latrell Mitchell scooped it up and set off downfield before passing to Tupou. Tupou turned the defence inside out but fumbled his pass attempt back to Mitchell and it travelled forward.
Ten minutes later and a Foran kick was knocked back, seemingly by accident, by Mitchell. Tedesco picked it up on his own line and then took off downfield before putting Keary in the clear who ran away to score a great length-of-the-field try. Mitchell converted from touch.
It took just 4 minutes before the Roosters scored again, this time on the right side after a Manu offload was regathered by Friend who put Ferguson over in the corner. Mitchell was unable to convert.
A 5 minute period dominated by the Bulldogs followed. Boyd Cordner dropped the ball inside his own half. Two tackles later and the Dogs scored a penalty. Lichaa took a quick tap and was stopped from scoring by an offside Liu, who was promptly marched to the sin bin. The Dogs then picked up 3 straight penalties while inside the Roosters 20 metres followed by a scrum. From the scrum the ball was sent right and it looked like Montoya had scored, only for it to be called back for obstruction.
With nine minutes left in the half, Mitchell kicked a penalty goal to take the Roosters lead out to 12. On the 37th minute, Dylana Napa made a bustling run, bumping through some weak defence. The next tackle saw Keary link up with Tedesco running on his inside and the custodian powered through the edge defence to score. Mitchell again converted from wide out on the left side to give the Roosters an 18-0 lead at the break.
The Bulldogs needed to score first in the second half and they did just that after Frawley sliced through before sending out a great pass to Josh Morris who scored. Mbye converted.
The fightback was short lived though as Tedesco cut through the Bulldogs edge defence before sending Cronk over to score near the posts. Mitchell slotted the easy goal to take their lead back out to 18.
With 20 minutes remaining, Bulldogs captain Josh Jackson barged over for a strong try which was converted by Mbye to get the Dogs back within two tries.
Some more sloppy and ill-disciplined play crept back into the game over the next 15 minutes, with a penalty to the Roosters saw Mitchell kick a penalty goal from 35 metres out to give the Roosters a 14 point lead with 6 minutes to go.
The game was put beyond doubt with just over 3 minutes remaining when Keary fed a lovely short ball to Matterson who forced his way over on the left side. Mitchell was unable to convert from out wide.
Next weekend the Roosters will look to build on this win when they host Newcastle on Sunday night, while Canterbury have the same timeslot next Friday - at home to Penrith at ANZÂ Stadium.