The Latrell Mitchell-inspired Roosters held off a spirited Canterbury fightback to notch a six-point win on Sunday, as Mitchell Pearce scored the match-winner to all but seal his inclusion in Laurie Daley's NSW Blues side.
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Pearce slammed the ball down with four minutes to go to kill off the Bulldogs, who had looked like stealing a late win despite trailing by 14 points at half-time thanks to second-half tries to Kerrod Holland and Matt Frawley.
With nine minutes to go referee Gerard Sutton looked to have awarded Canterbury six again with the Bulldogs attacking the line, but the decision was overturned and possession went back to the Roosters.
The margin was two points at the time and the Bulldogs were threatening strongly, but the decision seemed to deflate the Canterbury sails and five minutes later Pearce sealed the deal.
But it was 19-year-old Mitchell who stole the show on Sunday, certainly in the first half as the young star from Taree scored a try and helped set up two more. Although he didn't finish the game after leaving the field with 20 minutes to go nursing what appeared to be a sternum injury.
He'll likely be overlooked when Laurie Daley names his Origin team on Monday, but the classy speedster is quickly developing into a long-term option at centre for NSW.
Meanwhile, the man who should be wearing No.7 in game one against the Maroons on Wednesday week played another steadying role for the Roosters as the Bondi outfit made hard work of a Canterbury side that refused to wilt after a poor opening 40 minutes.
"We obviously started poorly with our defence in the first 10 minutes and finished [the first half] poorly with our attack," Roosters coach Trent Robinson said.
"I thought we had 30 good minutes there in the first half and we were up 20 to six but we needed to apply ourselves a bit in the second half and it didn't really happen.
"We just weren't ruthless enough. We didn't get it going at all in the second half and all of a sudden the score was 20-18 and then I thought we did really well."
This match pitted one of the NRL's best first-half teams against one of its strongest finishers, and that's exactly how this game played out.
Bulldogs coach Des Hasler delivered another rousing half-time team talk as his side found itself 20-6 down when they went into the sheds, looking to emulate the comeback win they produced three weeks ago against the Canberra Raiders.
Yet they gamely fell short, suffering their sixth loss of the year despite a tireless performance from Josh Jackson who looks to have done enough to earn himself a Blues jumper.
Rooster Dylan Napa was also superb and will give Maroons coach Kevin Walters plenty to think about ahead of naming the Queensland side.
"He's been playing some unreal footy," Roosters captain Boyd Cordner said.
"He's been knocking on the door for a while now but I think today he played himself into that Queensland team.
"He plays off a lot of emotion. Origin is all built on emotion and I know how much he loves Queensland, how much that jersey means to him. He won't do them an injustice if he gets picked."
Hasler's side came out barking and Josh Morris stepped through some ordinary defence just six minutes in to open the scoring.
On 13 minutes Daniel Tupou walked over in the left corner after a splendid no-look pass from Mitchell helped Michael Gordon feed his winger.
It was Mitchell's first significant involvement, and a taste of things to come as the silky centre started to wreak havoc with Canterbury's shaky right-side defence.
Off the ensuing set of six the Roosters scored again, thanks to some more Mitchell magic down the left.
This time Tupou put him into space and the rangy centre looked set to score himself but was brought down short of the line. He still managed to heave a pass infield and Jake Friend was the beneficiary, running around to score under the posts after Jackson looked to have alleviated the danger.
A scheming Pearce then scooted around to the blind side and poked through a delightful grubber behind the Bulldogs right-hand defence which Mitchell only needed to fall on to score a much-deserved try, extending the margin to 14.
Canterbury fought hard to make a game of it after the break but fell short.
