Sydney Roosters five-eighth Luke Keary

The tenacity and resoluteness of the Sydney Roosters has seen them defeat the St George Illawarra Dragons despite losing two players to ACL injuries. 

Already without Josh Morris and James Tedesco heading in, many questioned just how well they would perform.

Their list took even bigger hits when, in quick succession, Victor Radley and Sam Verrills both went off with long-term ACL injuries.

The Roosters lodged an official complaint about the Bankwest surface which has seen plenty of action since the resumption.

Isaac Liu also broke a rib but despite all that, the Roosters dug deep to defeat the Dragons 26-12.

This on the back of Luke Keary who continues to prove that he is the architect of the Roosters attack.

With a reshuffle to start the match, the Roosters scored early through Josh Morris who just burrowed over with ease.

Perhaps the try of the game was then seen by all.

Joey Manu put a bomb, regathered and produced one of the greatest flick passes we may ever see.

It found the hands of hulking prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves in support who had the line in his sights.

Down but not out, the Dragons breathed fire on the back of enigmatic fullback Matt Dufty.

Attacking down the left, Dufty delivered a bullet-like cut-out pass to Mikaele Ravalawa to open their account.

Then, soon after, Dufty was again involved. Another bullet pass found Zac Lomax who held on and grounded the ball.

The Keary show would then emerge and put the Dragons away in what was a masterclass.

Showing all the poise and calmness that a top half should, he was everywhere and grubbered ahead for a Morris double.

The livewire then did it all himself. On the last and spotting a gap down the middle, he just ran straight through to score himself.

The nail in the coffin came towards the end of the game when Keary again used his vision to chip over for Morris to score his hat-trick.

Losing two men is enough to cripple sides on the best of days but Roosters coach Trent Robinson praised his sides resilience.

“It was really incredible some of the performances out there,” Robinson said.

“I’m really proud of them. I thought they adapted really well and played really tough.

“You don’t have to coach these guys a lot. There’s not a lot of messages out there.

“You listen to [Luke] Keary or Boyd [Cordner] talk, they’re the ones that are really coaching them on the field.”

NRL News Player of the Game

3. Luke Keary

2. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves

  1. Matt Dufty
Sydney Roosters prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves

By ricky

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