But the Dragons were their own worse enemy as they delivered possession to opposition and gave away no less than 3 penalties from kickoff.

Both teams battled their way through but it was Saints who looked worse for wear and in the end, The Roosters came away with a much needed win.

MATCH REPORT (BY THE CLOCK): 
2 min: Nathan Blacklock crosses but his try is disallowed with ref Harrigan calling him back for offside. The replay shows the ref is completely wrong and one can only speculate as to why the video ref wasn't called.
7 min: Brad Fittler kicks a 40/20
10 min: Try Blacklock. 25th try this year and Tingha becomes the only player in history to score 25 tries or more for 2 years running. The try comes after Saints withstood some sustained Roosters attack. Conversion Bartrim. Saints 6-0
12 min: Try Fittler. On the angle, Fittler gets out of tackle and scores. Conversion Fitzgibbon. 6-all
15 min: Ryles injured, rib injury. Has to leave the field.
17 min: Penalty goal Fitzgibbon. Saints penalised for offside. Easts 8-6
22 min: Penalty goal Fitzgibbon. Right in front. Easts 10-6
24 min: Fitzgibbon charges down Barrett kick near half way, regathers it runs some 25 metres. Barrett in pursuit. Barrett runs Fitzgibbon down and then steals the ball in a one on one tackle less than 20 metres out from Saints line.
25 min: Try Treacy. Blacklock makes a break down the wing from own 40m line and finds Roberts in support. Great pass under pressure. Roberts then makes further ground before sending the ball to Treacy who is backing up on the onside. Conversion Bartrim. Saints 12-10
26-33 min: A series of errors from both sides and some baffling decisions from the ref. Both sides are losing the ball and Saints are the worse offenders. The ref picks up all the errors except for one, a Roosters knock on in 31st minute.
33 min: Ryles back on.
34 min: Penalty goal Milton. Roosters bomb comes off Cooper's head. Roosters players are seen pushing. The bounce of the ball ends up with Treacy who takes ball in offside position. This is a ref penalty as it should have gone the other way. 12-all
35 min: Saints kick off. Goes out on the full. Fittler takes penalty kick for touch but is 3 metres inside Saints half when he does so. Moving a mile off the mark in front of ref Harrigan.
38 min: Ryles plays ball in wrong direction and is penalised.
39 min: Try Flannery. Fittler puts up bomb and the ball hits the uprights. Fletcher, in an offside position catches the ball and passes it to unmarked men out wide. The Video Ref, Parnaby, awards the try despite the obvious infringement. Conversion not successful from Milton. Easts 16-12
HALF TIME
40 min: Riddell kicks out on full on last tackle. Roosters get ball on halfway.
42-51 min: Roberts and Blacklock being bombed. Roberts get tackled behind tryline. Hooper knocks on. Saints forwards not muscling up. Backs doing too many hitups. Too much tackling is taking it's toll.
53 min: Riddell taken high by Lomu and Ricketson. Ricketson deliberately attacking Riddell's head with his forearm. Despite blood pouring from Riddell's nose, ref Harrigan says that the tackle was OK.
54 min: Penalty goal Fitzgibbon. Right in front. Ryles was penalised for being involved in stripping the ball but the replay shows the player was trying to offload. Ryles loses the argument and probably should just keep his mouth shut. His back chat was a source of aggravation for a ref who going to punish Ryles at every opportunity. Easts 18-12
55 min: The rain is now pelting down.
56 min: From kick restart, Roberts again kicks out on full. This time he clears the dead ball line.
57 min: Slippery conditions sees more handling errors. Torrential rain, thunder and hail.
61 min: Field goal Fittler. This follows a missed knock on by the ref. Turning point of the match. Easts 19-12
63 min: Try Heggarty. Survives calls for double movement. Fitzgibbon misses conversion. Easts 24-12
66 min: From kickoff, Saints' player a toe nail in front of kicker and is penalised for offside.
67 min: Saints forced into line drop out. More tackling.
68 min: Roosters knock on and Saints pick up ball only to be forced into touch. Ref gives feed to Easts.
69 min: Fitzgibbon penalty goal. Right in front. Against Ryles for having hand on ball as it was stripped. Very frustrating. Easts 25-12
72 min: Penalty to Saints following head high on Barrett. Saints get some rare ball and force a line drop out.
79 min: Saints almost cross but unable to finish off movement.
Too many errors. Not enough go forward.
FULLTIME: Roosters 25-12 (3 tries to 2)

Click here for SOTV 2001 best player tally

For full list of all the year's sound files - click here

Just before kick off. Captain Barrett rallying the players.	Ainscough kicks for Blacklock on his inside. The ref waited until Tingha scored before calling him offside. The pic shows that he was behind the kicker.
Remarkably, this tackle on Jason Ryles (early in the match) was never placed on report. The Match Review Committee charged Sing (#4) with a grade 1 dangerous throw. Sing entered an early guilty plea and received no suspension. Fletcher (at rear top) was not charged at all.	Nathan Blacklock pulls in a Riddell grubber kick with perfect finger tip control to get the first try of the match and Tingha's 25th try of the year.
Amos Roberts takes this bomb brilliantly only to see his team penalised for obstruction right in front of the posts	After having his tackle charged down, Barrett sets off in pursuit of Fitzgibbon who had no one in front of him. Barrett claims Fitzgibbon and then steals the ball (one on one) to regain possession for his team.
After Saints kicked out the full, Fittler took this penalty kick at least 2 metres forward of the mark and right in front of the ref. Harrigan shows his inconsistency again.	In a separate incident, Fittler kicks on the last tackle and Fletcher, the eventual ball catcher is offside and in front of the kicker. Easts scored a try from this kick and even though the video ref Ian Parnaby was called, he still allowed the try. All observers agreed that Fletcher was offside.
Saints were often their own worse enemy. On this occasion, Jason Ryles plays the ball while facing his own tryline. He was spun around in the tackle and didn't check his bearings before playing the ball.	An embarrassed Jason Ryles can't believe it.
Blacklock feigning to pass and juggling the ball.	Riddell just before he kicked out on the full.
Luke Ricketson comes over the top and attacks Mark Riddell's head. Play was stopped as trainers tended to Riddell's bleeding nose.	The head high from a different angle. This drew no response from the ref other than to say that the tackle was OK. Moreover, there was no scrutiny from the Match Review Committee. Ricketson has a track record of going high.
A familiar sight for Saints as The Roosters slot another penalty goal from right in front. By now, the lights are on and the rain is pelting down.	Jamie Ainscough - drenched and frustrated.
Fitzgerald chance late in the match.	Andrew Hart just before fulltime