The Sydney Roosters’ scratchy 20-12 win over Canterbury has come at a cost with Boyd Cordner, Siosiua Taukeiaho and Jared Warea-Hargreaves all facing time on the NRL sidelines.
The premiers came into Sunday’s match looking to reinforce their status as title favourites and, for a while in the opening half-hour, they threatened to blow the 15th-placed Bulldogs off ANZ Stadium.
But in front of 10,586 fans, they failed to impress in the second half yet still did enough to record back-to-back wins.
Cordner limped from the field with a calf injury in the 56th minute before Taukeiaho went off 11 minutes later with the same problem.
Cordner is expected to miss a couple of weeks, meaning the Roosters are set to be without both of their skippers with Jake Friend nursing a fractured forearm.
Waerea-Hargreaves might be the latest victim of the game’s crackdown on late shots after being put on report for an off-the-ball hit on Jack Cogger.
The result keeps the the Roosters in third spot but, after Melbourne’s loss to Manly on Saturday, they are six points off top spot.
Before last week’s 48-10 dismantling of Newcastle, the Roosters had won only two of five games during a difficult State of Origin period.
They timed their run to last year’s premiership to perfection, and they showed signs they had flicked a switch on Sunday as they romped to an early 14-0 lead.
The Roosters looked like they were toying with the Dogs in the first half but their advantage could have been much more.
Cooper Cronk was denied because of a James Tedesco forward pass and Joey Manu put his foot on the sideline as they blew two golden chances in the opening six minutes.
But they failed to go on with it in the second half as they continued their trend of blowing away sides in short periods before taking their foot off the gas.
“I know we’re in a good spot,” coach Trent Robinson said of his side’s premiership defence.
“You don’t want to walk the same path. If you’re looking for the exact same feeling, then you’re crossing your fingers.
“You can’t repeat what you did last year or what you did five years ago.
“I know we’re in a hungry position. Do I want to see that first half again? Yes. Do I want to see a better second half? Yes.”
For the Dogs, it was also a similar story.
They showed plenty of heart, with a Reimis Smith double providing a few nervous moments in the closing stages.
But they were cruelled by simple errors, including Lachlan Lewis dropping the ball after Smith’s first try, which opened the door for Brett Morris to score.
“It could have gone either way,” Canterbury coach Dean Pay said.
“In the first half, I was really proud of the way they hung in there right at the end there where they had five or six sets of six at us.
“We took a lot out of that.”
Canterbury enforcer Dylan Napa (late shot) and Renouf To’omaga (crusher tackle) will both be scrutinised by the match review committee.