St George Illawarra’s bid for a place in the inaugural NRL Women’s grand final has fallen short after the Dragons were blown off the park by a determined Roosters team on Saturday night.
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Despite not having won a game this season, the Roosters entered the match only needing to win by more than one point to secure a grand final berth. And they played like a grand final spot was on the line.
Roosters winger Taleena Simon was the star of the show, crossing for four tries.
St George Illawarra played valiantly, however they were unable to overpower their opponents, eventually falling 26-0.
While disappointed with the result, Dragons coach Daniel Lacey was proud of his team's effort throughout the competition.
"It’s pretty sad in the change rooms," Lacey said after the game. "But I addressed the group and spoke to them about how proud I have been through this whole process.
"You can put it down to that 60 minutes if you want, but I’m looking beyond that at what we’ve done leading into this game.
"Just from the word go it just didn’t go our way. we were chasing our tails from the very start, but we kept chasing to the end and I’m pretty proud of that."
The Dragons were left with a mountain to climb after a horror start which saw the side concede three tries in the first 11 minutes.
The Roosters opened their account through Simon in the fourth minute and they didn’t ease up for the remainder of the game.
An error by Kezie Apps put the Roosters straight back on the attack and the home-side punished St George Illawarra, with Simon crossing for her second.
Simon completed a first-half hat-trick just three minutes later when she pounced on a loose ball after fullback Honey Hireme was cruelled by a horror bounce.
Hireme found herself in the fullback position for the second-straight week after Sam Bremner was ruled out with a toe injury.
St George Illawarra were kept in the game by the Roosters goal kicking, with Zahara Temara missing all three of her first half conversion attempts.
The Dragons had a number of opportunities late in the half, however they were left to rue numerous costly errors and headed to the sheds trailing 12-0.
The Roosters opened the second half as they did the first, with Simon crossing for her fourth try of the game.
St George Illawarra thought they had opened their account in the 53rd minute, only to be denied by the video referee.
The decision summed up the Dragons day, with seemingly everything the side attempted failing to come off.
Victoria Latu then closed out the Roosters account four minutes later to secure the victory and a spot in next Sunday’s grand final.