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Sourced from NRL.com
Roosters finally crack it for 1000th win
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - 5:25 PM
It may have taken nine attempts but the Sydney Roosters finally broke through for their 1000th first grade win with a 18-4 victory over St George Illawarra in the Anzac Day NRL clash at Aussie Stadium.
Entering the match on the back of five straight losses to open the season, the Roosters ended their 2007 duck with a morale-boosting three tries to one win, five-eighth Braith Anasta reminding representative selectors of his ability in the No.6 jumper with an outstanding display.
Anasta played like a man possessed, obviously fired up by a pre-game jibe from opposite Richie Williams that the former NSW Origin pivot was past his best.
The two were involved in a running verbal battle all game which became physical just before halftime, but it was Anasta who had the last laugh as he set up the match-sealing try for winger Shaun Kenny-Dowall shortly after the break.
While the win wasn't pretty it's one Roosters coach Chris Anderson will take given that the two competition points should ease the pressure on his position.
That pressure will now likely shift to his Dragons counterpart Nathan Brown, whose side has now lost five straight games following an opening round win.
Of greatest concern would be that his side was out-enthused for much of the contest, a try to 17-year-old Chase Stanley eight minutes from time their only joy.
Both sides bumbled their way through the opening quarter of the game, Roosters centre Iosia Soliola and Dragons prop Danny Hicks both fumbling balls over the line.
Finally the Roosters ended the stalemate when a Mitchell Pearce cross-field bomb found the waiting arms of Kenny-Dowall after 21 minutes, the young Kiwi winger out-leaping opposite Luke MacDougall for his third try of the season.
The Roosters again went to the air five minutes later and again MacDougall was found wanting, Sam Perrett flying high to make it 10-0.
The avalanche should have continued on the next set only for Soliola's hands to let him down again as he scythed through half a gap.
But perched on the Dragons line after Josh Morris had knocked on a Pearce grubber, Anasta took the game out of the Dragons' reach ten minutes after the restart with a brilliant cut-out ball for Kenny-Dowall to score.
A pair of penalty goals to Craig Fitzgibbon as Justin Poore earned the ire of referee Paul Simpkins for hands in the ruck blew the lead out to 18-0 before Stanley's late effort.
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