The Roosters have gone down to the St George Illawarra Dragons on Monday afternoon in an end-to-end battle.
The opening fifteen minutes were scoreless, but it was Kiah Cooper to open the scoring on the back of some slick Roosters backline play.
Just minutes later the Dragons retaliated with back-to-back tries to Keelyn Tuuta-Edwards and Matt Dufty to put the Roosters on edge early.
They would put those tries behind them though, scoring through Grant Garvey on the back of a nice kick from Jayden Nikorima.
Just shy of the halftime siren, the Dragons scored through prop Matt Jurd after barging over in the middle and edge his side ahead by a converted try.
If that didn’t hurt enough, they would score another right on the siren through winger Paora Kemp to take a 10-point lead at the break.
The Roosters came out of the sheds with plenty of energy in the second half, and even capitalised with a four-pointer through Jake Steadman in the corner.
Just minutes later and the Dragons hit straight back through winger Reuben Garrick to make it a 12-point lead.
With fifteen minutes to go, the Roosters were desperate to chip away at the deficit.
Kiah Cooper would answer the call when he sprinted after a Nikorima kick to plant it down for the Roosters and cut the lead to six.
It was clear that the Roosters had all the momentum, and it payed off for them when Grant Garvey sprinted over between the posts to lock up the scores in the closing ten minutes.
The Dragons were quick to retaliate though and snatch the lead in the closing minutes through Paora Kemp on the left wing.
They scored again at the death to make it a more attractive score-line for the Dragons.
