They be missing plenty of talent - including inspirational captain Boyd Cordner, Angus Crichton and Victor Radley - but there is still plenty of firepower left in this Roosters forward pack.

Dragons prop Blake Lawrie knows this and says he's ready for the challenge when he takes on some of the game's best in Wollongong on Thursday night.

"It's very exciting. Jared ran the ball pretty hard and tackled pretty hard the last time we played," he said.

"Jared always that strong energy and he's a leader of his pack. I know he's a big in for the Roosters so we'll be looking to restrict him. But even Taukeiaho is playing some good footy, he's been playing some big minutes. So we've got to work it out through the middle there."

St George Illawarra are keen to atone for last week's loss to the Rabbitohs in Kogarah. The home side led by 16 points after just 17 minutes, but Souths fought back to secure a 32-24 win.

Since that game, the Dragons halves have received a fair share of media scrutiny for their game management. However, Lawrie said it was everyone's responsibility to lift against the Roosters.

"When we've got teams on the ropes, we've got to put them to the sword. It was obviously disappointing on the weekend. We had a 16-0 lead and they came back and played good footy. Cody Walker played one of the better games he's played," the 23-year-old said.

"The spine has got a lot more responsibility than the rest of the blokes out there, but then again, there are 17 of us out on the field. We're all men and we know how to play the game. We can't purely put responsibility on the spine."

Thursday night shapes as do-or-die for the Dragons as they aim to keep their faint finals hopes alive.

Lawrie said it was important for St George Illawarra to cut out their defensive lapses, but the forwards also needed to lead the way against the Roosters.

"We've had a couple of performances that weren't up to our standard. We've got to purely focus on playing for 80 minutes and there's no better way to try and do it than against the two-time premiers," Lawrie said.

"I think a couple of our outside backs have done a good job to get us out of trouble. As forwards, we didn't play to each other [last week]. We ran one out and got picked off quite easily. We just need to take better ownership as a team to run with each other. I know Cam McInnes is really good at that - he's been driving that of late, especially when he goes to lock. We've got to take better ownership as individuals and not blame anyone else."

See more: Lomax gets prepared for tough assignment

Lawrie has played in all 12 games this season and continues to build a combination with fellow prop Paul Vaughan.

"I've been okay but I'm still hoping to improve every week," Lawrie said.

"'Vaughany' has been the leader of our pack and I want to try and help him out a bit. But Vaughany had the 13 role last week, and he is a fair chance to have it again this week. I think he's a chance to lift us a little bit again."