St George Illawarra went some way towards answering queries over their big-match temperament as they held off a dogged Sydney Roosters side 28-6 in Sunday's traditional Anzac Day NRL clash at Sydney Football Stadium.
The Dragons continued to turn winning ugly into an artform as they overcame a two-point halftime
deficit to run out five tries to one winners and move two points clear at the top of the NRL ladder.
A Mitchell Aubusson try 20 seconds before halftime had the Roosters faithful in the Anzac Day record crowd of 36,212 hope of an upset, but four unanswered tries after the break saw the red and whites blow them away.
Rookie prop Trent Merrin scored the first seven minutes after the restart when five Roosters defenders could not stop him before Matt Cooper scored off the back of a deft Darius Boyd kick and Todd Carney fumble to all but kill the contest at 16-6 with just over 20 minutes remaining.
Veteran hooker Luke Priddis kick-started early celebrations when he ploughed over from short range 10 minutes from time before Cooper - who had a dominant outing - was denied a second but the Dragons were not to be denied with a penalty try awarded when the former Test centre was taken out as he chased a rolling ball in the in-goal.
The Roosters decision to take the two points on offer via an early penalty goal gave an indication of how tight a contest they were anticipating, the penalty goal looking like gold with try-scoring chances at a premium over the opening quarter.
Carney's fumble from a line drop took the impetus out of the Roosters' early field dominance, but the Dragons weren't as wasteful when presented with repeat opportunities at the home side's line.
Presented with a scrum feed ten metres out, the Dragons appeared to be setting for an open side play only for the ball to go down the short side where a brilliant Cooper in and away set up try-scoring freak Brett Morris for yet another match-opening four-pointer.
The arm-wrestle continued as both sides struggled in the slippery conditions, and it looked like the visitors would take their narrow 4-2 advantage to the break until a Sam Perrett tap back from a Mitchell Pearce bomb allowed a trailing Aubusson to score twenty seconds from oranges.
- AAP
