John Gibbs has caught Jared Waerea-Hargreaves for a word after his record-breaking 307th game for the Roosters.

"I'm just fortunate to have such good role models," Waerea-Hargreaves says.

"Really privileged, really honoured. What a week. [It was] so overwhelming, so emotional. It's been such a great week. Really proud."

And on that high tackle that saw him binned and put on report.

"That's the fine line, sometimes you get it wrong and sometimes you don't.

"I just love what I do."

But it's a short interview as JWH's kids crash the scene and he can start celebrating with his family.

The Roosters rush to celebrate with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves on a special day for the veteran hard man. And in a nice touch, he spends a little extra time with his arm around debutant Ethan King.

"Such an honour to be a part of a game like this," Angus Crichton tells ABC Sport.

"We all love Jared so much — such a warrior and such a gentleman off the field. He's someone we all aspire to be like."

But of course JWH spent 10 minutes in the bin and got six stitches mid-game after leaving the field with blood pouring from his head.

"At least he's consistent, consistently ugly," Crichton says.

The Roosters are throwing it around and this time Kyle Flanagan bounces off James Tedesco, who gets an offload to Sitili Tupouniua and the big man crashes over on the right.

Ben Hunt kicks early straight off a scrum, looking for Tyrell Sloan, but Ethan King sprints back and gets there in time to break it up and bat the ball dead.

It's a tough job for a utility back on the bench, because you're not guaranteed a shot, but here he comes with six minutes to go.

He replaces Daniel Tupou and will mark Zac Lomax. His first input is cleaning up Lomax after the Origin winger fields a bomb.

Ben Hunt chips and regathers, offloads to Tyrell Sloan, who sprints upfield but gets brought down by Connor Watson as he grubbers, and Sam Walker gets back to clean up the loose ball.

Mosese Suli breaks down the left and flicks a ball back in-field to Luciano Leilua, but JWH turns up to take him down.

And the cross-field kick from Ben Hunt comes to nought as Zac Lomax's run is halted by Sam Walker.

Lindsay Collins takes the hit-up off the kick-off and JWH jogs back onto the field.

They spin it left on the last and some silky hands from the backline send Daniel Tupou over to seal the win.

A Terrell May offload creates a gap just to the left of the posts and big Lindsay Collins hits the ball with a mission. He gets over the line, but a host of Dragons manage to get under him to stop the ball reaching the grass.

Ben Hunt runs it on the last and he flicks an offload towards a supporting Jack de Belin, but it hits him in the head, Lindsay Collins sprints back to clean up for the Roosters and pops the ball to James Tedesco, who hits it at speed, brushes past Luciano Leilua and flies 50 metres to the tryline.

The Roosters halfback gets the ball on the last and props inside Ben Hunt, dropping the ball onto his in-step and grubbering into the path of a flying Angus Crichton to score out wide on the left.

The Roosters prop hits an inside ball from Luke Keary and looks like he's going to be stopped 5 metres short as Jacob Liddle gets him around the hips and Blake Lawrie hits him up high. Tyrell Sloan joins the fray, but Collins just keeps pumping the legs as he backs in and grounds the ball between Sloan's legs.

The Dragons spin it left and Christian Tuipulotu gets on the outside to dive in. But Victor Radley has KO'd himself in trying to stop him.

Radley's day is likely over, but the good news for the Roosters is he wasn't pinged with an eight-point try for his attempted tackle on Tuipulotu that looked a lot like a shoulder charge.

But it's another penalty as Sam Walker hits Kyle Flanagan high on the last as he just jogs into the line.

Another shot for the Dragons, but their attack is looking insipid.

Ben Murdoch-Masila grounds the ball next to the posts, but it looks like Luciano Leilua played the role of disruptor in the lead-up.

Leilua leapt very early for the high cross-field kick and into the back of Sam Walker. They're tangle falls into the legs of a flying Sitili Tupouniua and he knocks on, but so too does Leilua before Murdoch-Masila gets the ball.

All that to say, no it's not a disruptor, with the bunker saying Leilua's contest was genuine, but no it's not a try. Roosters knocked on first. The Dragons get another chance.

As it was so often in the first half, the Dragons are pressuring the Roosters' tryline. Ben Hunt's grubber is grounded by James Tedesco, so the Dragons get another set.

Ben Hunt is sporting a pristine white top after a half-time change, but he's one of the only ones. Every other kit is muddy and brown courtesy of an SFS pitch that is still sporting rugby union and soccer markings.

Sam Walker squibs a long-range shot at two-point field goal, so the Roosters' lead remains eight points heading to the sheds for half-time.

The Roosters can't be too miserable about the way the game has gone, but Walker tells Fox Sports he's "disappointed" because the team was on top for the entire half but allowed that late try by the Dragons.