The Roosters came away with the points from their Round 15 visit to Leichhardt Oval.
Winger Matt Utai crossed out wide early to open the scoring but the Roosters hit the lead in the ninth minute when Aiden Guerra waltzed through some flimsy defence. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves barged over five minutes later, then in the last five minutes of the first half a quick double strike from Boyd Cordner and Braith Anasta saw the Roosters go to the break with a 24-4 lead.
When Lama Tasi got the first try of the second half on the 50-minute mark the Tigers were seemingly dead and buried. Any thoughts of a comeback following Keith Galloway’s 55th-minute try were snuffed out when Pearce scored to make it 36-10 on the hour. But the Tigers are rarely predictable and a rapid hat-trick of tries through Beau Ryan, Tim Moltzen and Chris Lawrence had the Roosters nervously watching the clock as their lead was reduced to eight points with eight minutes to play.
That was as close as the Tigers got, however, with Martin Kennedy putting the exclamation point on a thrilling win when he muscled his way over for his only try this year with one minute to play.
Jake Friend set up three of the Roosters’ seven tries, while Aaron Woods was enormous for the Tigers, making 184 metres from 21 runs.