Luck helped Roosters beat Raiders: Smith (AAP)18 March 2012, 6:01 pmSydney Roosters NRL coach Brian Smith admitted his side were fortunate to beat Canberra on Sunday and has a tough week ahead of him to prepare his players for a clash with a red-hot Melbourne side next Sunday.
Despite completing only 53 per cent of their sets and making 20 errors at Allianz Stadium, the Roosters edged out an injury-ravaged Canberra 14-8, the Raiders playing the whole second half with just 14 available players.
Tries from Daniel Mortimer and skipper Braith Anasta, who kicked three goals, sealed the win, with Shaun Berrigan and Jarrod Croker going over for the Raiders.
"We know we can play a lot better than that and we will need to in terms of holding onto the ball and completing sets," Smith said.
"We stretched the friendship beyond all possible belief today.
"A little bit of today may be good fortune. But the effort the boys put in today, their kick-chasing and on-line defence saved my bacon."
The Storm have been in scintillating form in their first three matches, and Smith concedes his side will be blown away if they produce a repeat performance at AAMI Park.
"We go to Melbourne next week and I don't know how much work you can pack into six days, but we'll have a crack at it," he said.
"Some of the stuff Melbourne are doing at the moment is off the dial. We'll go and have a crack at them. We know how good they can be and we'll measure ourselves against them."
Smith also revealed he feared he'd made a mistake in dropping Anthony Mitchell to NSW Cup in favour of Mortimer, with the utility scoring two tries in a dominant display.
"I wasn't thinking straight when I watched Anthony Mitchell play the Sharks in reserve grade," he said.
"I thought he was going to cut the oranges and kick the goals. He did the whole lot and scored two tries.
"But Daniel came in and did a pretty good job and rescued my bacon a bit there."
Raiders coach David Furner revealed Josh Dugan would be out for up to two months after damaging the AC joint in his shoulder 10 minutes into the game.
The green machine also lost workaholic back-rower Shaun Fensom with partially-torn biceps and utility forward Trevor Thurling limped off before halftime with an ankle injury.
Despite the loss, Furner said he was proud of the performance of his players and how they reacted to the adversity of being under-manned.
"It made it tough but I thought we may escape with the win - we had some opportunities," Furner said.
"I was very happy with the way the players coped with the adversity and I did say to the players, we can still hold our heads up. We were just tanked."
Dugan went down following a heavy tackle from Jake Friend and Mitch Aubusson early in the game and, although he played on for another 10 minutes, the pain from the injury forced him off the field.
"Grading wise, it is about a three," Furner said.
"Without having the scans, it is hard to know exactly, but it could be four to six weeks and maybe even longer."
Thurling and Fensom will also undergo scans on Monday.
Source: Rugby League
Topic: Luck helped Roosters beat Raiders: Smith (AAP)
