Jersey Flegg: Dragons fall to Roosters

The first points of the afternoon belonged to the Dragons with Kade Reed summing things up and hitting second-gamer Cooper Hale on a nice line.

Reed converted the try to give the visitors a 6-0 advantage less than five minutes into the contest.

The Roosters were able to hit back via an attacking scrum with William Malloy running a perfect line off the hip of fullback Zac Sarfati to cross and lock things at six points apiece.

They were able to notch their first lead just moments later with Josh Durkin scooping up a loose ball and racing close to 60 metres to dive over in the right-hand corner despite a gallant chase from front rower Leeroy Weatherall.

Durkin was sin binned a half-hour in for a tackle off the ball giving the Dragons a golden opportunity heading into half-time, but the hosts’ defence remained intact as they got through the period unscathed to take a lead into the sheds.

The Dragons started the second half in style with Jesse Williams coming up with a phenomenal, individual effort to send his team back to the front.

Williams caught the ball on the end of a shift from inside his own half, motored into space, and cut back on the inside leaving a collection of defenders in the dust as he zipped away to score.

The Roosters wrestled the lead back 55 minutes in through Kynan Toevai who powered his way over off a slick ruck play to make it 16-12.

Lachlan Dooner was binned for the hosts an hour in, but it did little to slow them down with the home side finding an extra gear down the stretch to motor towards a key win.

Joseph Currie scored off a deft Durkin grubber after the halfback sped into space up the middle of the field despite the Dragons possessing a one-man advantage.

Durkin scored his second of the afternoon shortly after dummying and stepping his way to the stripe to make it a convincing Roosters lead.

The halfback’s boot produced another result for the Roosters with Kade Maguire on the end of a well-placed bomb to snag another four-pointer.

As time ticked away, Maguire scooped up a bouncing pass and muscled his way over in the left corner to secure his second and put a bow on a Roosters victory.