A Jamie Soward-inspired St George Illawarra produced a magnificent second-half performance to storm to a 36-12 win over a gallant Sydney Roosters and consolidate their place at the top of the NRL ladder.

Soward, who almost single-handedly put the Roosters to the sword on Anzac Day, once again shone against his former club with a fine all-round display that included scored two tries and five goals at WIN Jubilee Oval.

The Roosters belied their bottom-of-the-table position with a determined showing, with Mitchell Pearce once again showing some impressive form at halfback and skipper Craig Fitzgibbon rolling back the years with two first-half tries.

Brad Fittler’s side led 12-6 at halftime thanks to Fitzgibbon’s brace with Neville Costigan responding for the Dragons to finish a brilliant team try after 19 minutes after some great work from Matt Cooper.

That lead was clawed back by the Dragons three minutes into the second half when Soward leapt above Sam Perrett to touch down under the posts after a spiralling kick from Ben Hornby.

The young five-eighth was involved once again four minutes later to set up Wendell Sailor for his ninth try of the season with a brilliant long pass that allowed the yellow-booted former Queensland winger to hold off Shaun Kenny-Dowall and go over in the corner.

Once in front, the Dragons took complete control with Hornby and Soward dominating in the halves.

Despite some much improved defensive play from the Roosters they had no answer to some superb attacking form from Wayne Bennett’s side.

Matt Prior increased the home side’s lead after 54 minutes with his first NRL try after holding off three tackles and barging over the line with Soward once again the instigator.

Fittingly the final word went to Soward, who sprinted 80 metres in the last minute after the Roosters turned the ball over deep in Dragons territory.

His subsequent conversion took his tally for the night to 18 points to send the majority of the 12,472-strong crowd home happy.

In typical fashion, Bennett played down his side’s second-half transformation and said he did not need to tell his players what went wrong in the opening period.

“They didn’t need me to inspire them at halftime, they inspired themselves and I didn’t need to tell them what was wrong, 12,000 people knew so I assume they knew,” he said.

“We convinced ourselves we were playing the bottom team and they convinced themselves they were playing the top team and it showed.”

Bennett and Soward both refused to discuss the five-eighth’s State of Origin aspirations but the coach did say he was delighted with the burgeoning partnership between Hornby and Soward.

“I have been happy with them since about round four, they both bring different things to the team and do certain things very well,” Bennett said.

Roosters coach Fittler said he was pleased with his side’s battling defeat but admitted they were just not good enough on the night.

“We were beaten by the better side, we fought hard to get where we were, I thought some of the decisions that went against us were poor,” he said.

“They are a pretty good side, they were excellent and probably as good as there is.”

Fittler was also full of praise for Soward and Hornby.

“It was good to watch Jamie from above, you are so aware of his reactions, he keeps sniffing and he is so good at it, his kicking game is so controlled and I love Ben Hornby, he is such a good player.”

© AAP 2012

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