The Roosters, still depleted despite the return of star back-rower Boyd Cordner, were their own worst enemy in their 20-18 loss, with 14 of the Dragons 20 points coming directly from errors.

Young fullback Latrell Mitchell gifted Gareth Widdop the opening try when he spilled a bomb 10 metres out from his own line while Jason Nightingale’s 27th minute try from a Widdop grubber came after Shaun Kenny-Dowall dropped the ball deep inside his own territory. 

Debutant Ryan Matterson also threw a crucial intercept that allowed Kalifa Faifai Loa to dash 60 metres and give his side an 18-0 on the stroke of halftime.

Even the brief glimmer of hope that came with Jake Friend’s try six minutes after the resumption was quickly snuffed out with Kane Evans dropping the ball from ensuing kickoff and flattening Mitch Rein with a late hit that allowed Widdop to push the lead out to 20-6 with 30 minutes to play.

Evans was put on report for the shot in a match in which Sam Moa , Eloni Vunakece (crusher) and Dylan Napa were also booked.

For their part the Dragons were clinical in the first half completing their first 13 sets straight while Widdop virtually did enough to secure man of the match honours inside the first 40 minutes. But they clearly shut up shop in the second with the Roosters out-scoring them 18-2 to almost snatch a late victory.

Mitchell made amends for some crucial errors when swooped on a deflected grubber from Matterson to peg the lead back to 20-12 with 18 minutes to play while Matterson also crossed with four minutes left to send the game down to the wire.

It didn’t have the colour of his counterpart Trent Robinson’s epic spray following the match but coach Paul McGregor did concede second half fade-outs are something his side will need to address.

“We certainly will address it. We led the week before 18-6 at halftime to but we’ve done enough to win both games,” McGrgegor said.

“I thought our first half was really clinical and we did what we needed to do and came up with some points. 

“We were pretty comfortable heading into the second half, our defence was on-song and we were getting up the field pretty well but it turned around pretty quickly in the second half.

“They were a bit desperate in the second half and had 10 offloads there which is unlike the Roosters.

“They usually play a pretty tough grinding brand of footy but they threw a bit of caution to the wind and got some success from it.”

The win takes there win-loss ledger to 4-4 and outs them in equal eight spot ahead of their last trip away from Sydney for the year against the Warriors next week.

“4-4 in this competition is pretty good considering we’ve had five games away, played  three times in Queensland and in Melbourne as well,” McGregor said. “We’ve still got some growing to do as a team and we’ll continue to do that.”