The Dragons held off the Roosters 34-26 at Collegians on Sunday to improve to 6-1 on the year.
A sizzling opening saw the Dragons open up a 16-point first-half advantage before the Roosters clawed their way back into the contest late.
The club’s growing list of unavailabilities paved the way for four players to make their Jersey Flegg debuts – Malokai Tomo, Marley McLaren, Creighton Meafou and Mason Phillips – the latter crossing for a match-sealing try moments out from the siren.
Match: Dragons v Roosters
Round 8 -
home Team
Dragons
1st Position
away Team
Roosters
12th Position
Venue: Collegians Sporting Complex, Wollongong
The Dragons found success early with Cooper Hale muscling his way to the line off a swift Jackson Cahill-Smith delivery.
Tom Kirk added the extras to make it 6-0 the way of the hosts.
They extended their lead shortly after with Ben Jackson finding some space up the middle off a McLaren inside ball and handing it off to a supporting Dextar Grant who dove under over the sticks to push the buffer out to a dozen.
The Dragons manufactured a miraculous team try the very next set with a Cahill-Smith bomb bouncing into the arms who Braith Plecas who squeezed the ball out the back.
It went through the hands of Kirk and Kye Andrews before Hale crafted a cross-field kick which landed in the lap of Viliami Amone.
Big man Ben Jackson finished things off up the middle to snag his second try in as many weeks and push the lead out to 18-0.
Grant went close to nabbing his second a quarter of the way in out of dummy-half but was ruled held up in-goal.
The Roosters found their first points off it with Lancelot Tovio pouring into the space and diving over behind the sticks to cut the difference back to 12.
The Roosters found their second shortly after through Julius Mitchell who went over off the back of a Jayden Missio break to make it 18-12.
The hosts were able to wrestle back some momentum five minutes out from the break with Zachariah Nachar strolling over in the right-hand corner off a brilliant Lucas Borg cut-out.
They found another key try the next set with Tomo showcasing his acceleration to produce a phenomenal individual effort and notch his first Jersey Flegg try.
The first points of the second stanza belonged to the visitors with Dom Farrugia finishing off a left-side shift after wing partner Kade Maguire made a break off the kick return.
The Roosters snagged another 15 minutes into the second half with Jaxson Allen burrowing his way over out of dummy-half to cut it back to 28-22.
The visitors managed to cut the buffer back to just two entering the final 15 minutes with Jake Elliott shoving his way to the stripe.
The final stages proved intense but it was a final minute Phillips four-pointer which iced it for the Red V as they secured another key win on home soil.
