Roosters down Dragons in Anzac Cup

The afternoon got off to a less than ideal start for the Dragons with Moses Suli suffering a match-ending head knock in the opening collision of the encounter.

Tom Eisenhuth was forced to shift into the centres with Jack de Belin coming into the middle of the field.

The Dragons came up with the opening points of the affair through Jaydn Su’A who finished off an enterprising passage of play sparked by Zac Lomax surging down the right flank and finding a supporting Tyrell Sloan on his outside with a flick pass.

Sloan put a chip in over the head of fullback James Tedesco with a ferocious bounce finding Ben Hunt who got the ball onto a flying Jack Bird and finally Su’A who evaded a collection of cover defenders to slam the ball down to the right of the sticks.

Lomax added the extras to make it 6-0 the way of the Dragons just six minutes in.

The video officials were invited into the game early with the Roosters lodging a successful captain’s challenge to put them on the attack through an escort penalty.

Dominic Young responded for the Roosters off the back it finding his way to the line in the right corner despite a desperate Kyle Flanagan cover effort.

Sam Walker slotted the conversion from the right touchline to tie proceedings at six-apiece 13 minutes in.

The Roosters managed their second through Angus Crichton off a Dragons error with Walker throwing over his second conversion to put his side up by a half-dozen.

Joseph Manu grabbed the Roosters’ third off a Walker chip as their lead grew to 18-6 just shy of the half-hour mark.

Walker inserted himself into the game again soon after chasing his own chip to secure a penalty try with video officials ruling that he had been interfered with in the lead-up.

The scoreboard soon read 30-6 with the Roosters finding a four-pointer through Nat Butcher off the boot of Luke Keary just shy of halftime.

Sloan was placed on report in the aftermath for a stray boot that caught the chin of Walker after the Dragons No.1 made a break a few minutes prior.

The Dragons exercised their right to challenge shortly after halftime to overturn a knock-on call coming out of their own end.

Jack de Belin nudged his way over under the sticks off some sharp Fa’amanu Brown hooking work for the Dragons’ second try 10 minutes into the second half.

Keary crawled his way over off a bout of extended attack to swing momentum back the way of the Roosters.

The Roosters managed another soon after with an attacking bomb ending up in the arms of Manu who strolled over in the left corner.

James Tedesco was the next Rooster to find a four-pointer with Crichton surging into the backfield before finding his supporting skipper back on the inside.

The Dragons managed to stop the bleeding temporarily courtesy of an Eisenhuth try after Lomax came up with the ball off a Roosters aerial spill and sent a long ball out the way of the versatile veteran.

Butcher secured his second of the afternoon late off another grubber to further extend the Roosters’ lead before Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii got his name on the scoresheet late.