Roosters crow over misfiring Dragons

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St George Illawarra Dragons v Sydney Roosters

The Sydney Roosters showed why they are one of the most exciting teams in the NRL as they ran out 34-12 victors over a poor Dragons outfit at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium.

The opening 40 minutes was all one-way traffic and it was all towards the boys from Bondi as they managed to run in six tries in the opening half. The first moment of the half was less-than-perfect for the Roosters when the opening kick-off when out on the full, but it was the one down moment of an near-flawless forty minutes.

The Roosters opened the scoring in the eighth minute when the Keary-Cronk combination fired when the pair combined with James Tedesco on a raid down the right-hand side and found Joey Manu who had the defence going sideways and Manu strolled through to score, the try was converted by Cooper Cronk, who slotted his first conversion in 11 years. The Roosters second try summed up the Dragons efforts when Isaac Liu got through to chase a kick and beat the lazy defenders to score.

It was a good night for debutants as the Roosters found their third try through debutant Billy Smith when he was able to back up on a burst by Tedesco after the Roosters again elected to use the short-side to get through and at the end of the play Smith had his maiden NRL try. The Roosters were free-flowing in attack and it was near perfection as Cronk put through Victor Radley to score and they lead 24-0 after the half hour mark.

The final try of the first half was the cherry on top of the cake for the Bondi boys, as Cronk put on a 35 metre kick that was flat and straight across the field and found Daniel Tupou who got through to score. Despite a wayward conversion attempt from the number seven, the Roosters took a 28-0 lead into the break.

The second half was nothing like the first for the Tricolours, as they struggled to hold the ball despite scoring the opening points. Their only points of the second stanza came ten minutes after play resumed when Cronk showed his attacking prowess and dragged defenders out as he looked to send the ball wide, before electing to go through the hole that opened up and finding Tedesco who scored.

The Dragons then went bang-bang to hit back and it was another debutant that registered a try for the match in Tristan Sailor, son of Wendell who was able to show both speed and agility to score, beating Tedesco in the process. St George Illawarra's second try came just after the hour mark when a grubber kick behind the Roosters' defensive line which was knocked down by Billy Smith - Saints forward Luciano Leilua got through to ground it first and surprised everyone with no reaction.

Both sides attacked in the red-zone for the rest of the contest, but errors cost them both any real chances and the Roosters held their 34-12 margin until full time.

Next weekend, the Roosters will play host to the Penrith Panthers at the SCG on Saturday night whilst also at the SCG the Dragons will play host to the Tigers on Sunday afternoon.