Roosters bring Dragons back to earth with a thud in Anzac Day hammering

The 42-point winning margin was the biggest in the 23 Anzac Day clashes between the two teams, eclipsing the Dragons' 29-0 win in 2009.

Sam Walker was the undoubted star and was named player-of-the-match, after scoring a try, setting up three other ties and kicking 10 goals from as many attempts.

It was a disappointing first half for the Dragons even though they were first to score after just five minutes through Jaydn Su'a.

Dragons centre Mosese Suli was ruled out of the remainder of the Anzac Day clash after a head clash with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves off the kickoff.

This didn't seem to faze the Red V early on with Su'a scoring one of the Dragons best tries this season after good lead up work from Zac Lomax and Tyrell Sloan.

Sloan, who found room out wide after a slick Lomax pass, ran 20 metres down track before kicking ahead for himself.

While he failed to regather the ball captain Ben Hunt was on hand to regather the ball and he passed to Kyle Flanagan, who found a charging Su'a, who shook off a Roosters defender to cross for a four-pointer in just the fifth minute of the game.

But the Dragons 6-0 lead lasted just five minutes with Dom Young scoring the first of the Trii-colours five tries for the half in the 10^th minute as the Roosters went to the halftime break 30-6 to the good.

Young halfback Sam Walker had a field day, scoring a try and creating two others to Joey Manu and Nat Butcher, with the first coming after a lovely chip-kick for Manu to score.

Walker was awarded a penalty try after Fa'amanu Brown was adjudged to have impeded Walker after he tried to regather his own kick.

Walker, playing his first game back after injury, also slotted five from five goals to finish the half with 14 points.

With the scores locked at 6-all, Angus Crichton also crossed a try after an errand Lomax pass was dropped by Hunt, with Michael Jennings scooping the ball up and passing off to Crichton to barge over for a four-pointer.

Dragons coach Shane Flanagan said his team had been brought back to earth "pretty badly".

"I couldn't wait for it to finish," he said.

"To be honest, we didn't start too bad. and then we tried to make some stuff up and then it was a pass from Zac and they scored and then they scored quickly again.

"All of a sudden from a good start and leading by six nil and even at six all, we are competing well set for set and then they got possession and it was rolling up the field,, getting repeat sets and they coming off the back fence and we couldn't handle them.

"They got some good athletes and we've come down to Earth with a thud .

The [players] are all terribly disappointed because it is a big occasion. I was trying to get across to them all week not to let the occasion get to you, and I don't think we did.

"We started pretty well so we can't use that as an excuse.

"The roosters came off the back fence, won all the collisions, won the contest on the ground, run faster, run harder and their two halves played in dinner suits."

Flanagan also refused to use Suli's injury as an excuse although he conceded see him knocked out had an effect on the players.

"It's a terrible way to start a game. And we did miss him because he's powerful from the back of the field and we couldn't win that battle at the back of the field," he said.

"We are not using the Mosese Suli incident as an excuse.It contributed and it wasn't a great start for us, but we're not tossing that up as an excuse."

Victory for Trent Robinson's chargers ended the recent history and have now won two Anzac Day clashes on the trot, with the Dragons the last to win two on the trot in 2015-16.

It was an Anzac Day to forget for Parramatta-bound Lomax.

The Roosters scored two tries directly from Lomax erros, including dropping a high ball in the second half.

But he wasn't alone, with the Roosters suffocating defence rattling the Dragons.

St George Illawarra needed to be first to score in the second half and they did courtesy of Jack de Belin but the Roosters had all the answers and extended their lead to 46-12 after tries to Luke Keary, Manu and James Tedesco.

Lomax set up Tom Eisenhuth for a try in the 67^th minute but again the Tricolours hit back with Butcher at the end of a smart Walker grubber to cross for his second try.

But the Rooster were to go on to cross for two more converted tries to hand the Dragons one of their worst ever defeats.