The Dragons took down the Roosters 28-18 at Wentworth Park on Sunday afternoon for their 10th Knock-On Effect NSW Cup win from their past 11.
Mathew Feagai made a successful return to the field in the win after a near three-month injury layoff.
Fullback Tyler Peckham-Harris enjoyed a stellar outing in just his second Knock-On Effect NSW Cup appearance deputising for the injured Cody Ramsey scoring two tries as his side marched to a handy victory.
Hayden Buchanan was also phenomenal for the Dragons manufacturing a pair of superb try assists and proving a handful with ball in hand for much of the afternoon.
Match: Roosters v Dragons
Round 19 -
home Team
Roosters
6th Position
away Team
Dragons
2nd Position
Venue: Wentworth Park, Sydney
The Dragons lost lock Matthew Alhazim in the opening exchanges to a failed HIA bringing fellow rookie Ryan Hutchinson into the action.
Benaiah Ioelu got the Roosters on the board first 10 minutes in after Toby Rodwell regathered his own kick which had been spilt and produced a quick play-the-ball to help his No.9 burrow his way over.
The Dragons found a nice response a quarter of the way in however through Peckham-Harris who was the beneficiary of a shrewd Buchanan offload in the left-hand corner.
An attacking scrum from just 10 metres out paved the way for Corey Allan to send the visitors to the lead with the veteran winger producing a barnstorming effort to score his third try of the season.
Feagai found a try in his return moments later courtesy of another sublime, around-the-corner Buchanan offload as the Dragons took a 16-6 advantage into the half.
Toby Rodwell threatened to eat into the Dragons’ lead poking his nose through with the hosts on the attack but was dragged down by a desperate Ryan Hutchinson cover effort with the front rower forcing the ball loose as well.
Jett Liu was held up for the Dragons, but the Roosters defensive line broke shortly after with Nick Tsougranis muscling his way through and crawling his way to the stripe in determined fashion to extend the lead beyond a pair of converted tries.
Charlie Heidke went aerial to reel in a short Roosters kick-off with the Dragons notching their second four-pointer of the second half off it.
Feagai leapt to knock a well-placed Lachlan Ilias back to a chasing Peckham-Harris who took it in and dove over for his second try of the afternoon.
Tsougranis left the field for the Dragons a little over an hour in with an apparent lower back concern bringing Loko Pasifiki Tonga back into the action.
Knock-On Effect NSW Cup Highlights: Round 19 v Roosters
Corey Allan helped the Dragons turn defence into attack soon after producing a crunching tackle to force an error as the Roosters looked to strip the visitors’ right edge of numbers before taking off downfield and finding Heidke who took it deep into Roosters territory.
The next points belonged to the Roosters however with Tom Rodwell taking in a Sandon Smith cut-out and speeding over in the left corner.
Ethan King found a late try off a Smith grubber to make the scoreboard a little tidier for the hosts, but it mattered little with Willie Talau’s men holding on for their 10th win from their past 11 outings.
