![Dragons winger Christian Tuipulotu says the side wants to right the wrongs of their Anzac Day flogging at the hands of the Roosters earlier this season. Picture by Adam McLean Dragons winger Christian Tuipulotu says the side wants to right the wrongs of their Anzac Day flogging at the hands of the Roosters earlier this season. Picture by Adam McLean](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/181794477/e4938169-ae4b-43e1-819e-ee721c3d5834.jpg/r0_85_5464_3169_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
St George Illawarra winger Christian Tuipulotu says he will only be focusing on the two points, not getting one over his former side when the Dragons face the Roosters this Sunday, July 7.
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The 23-year-old made his NRL debut back in 2020 with the Roosters, before he spent the next three years at the Sea Eagles.
Tuipulotu has been in some great form of late after taking some time to play regularly in first grade under Shane Flanagan - the man who mentored him whilst the pair were at Manly.
But coming up against his other former club in the Roosters, Tuipulotu said his only concern was getting back-to-back wins against the side that give them a 60-18 smashing on Anzac Day earlier this year.
"I want to get the win. Obviously we didn't play our best the last time we played them, but we're more prepared now and we're ready," Tuipulotu said.
"Yeah [we do think about the previous Roosters game] a little bit. Obviously we don't like losing. We have that on our minds of what happened last time, and we don't want that to happen again. We just want to get the win."
Tuipulotu said he had thoroughly enjoyed his time since joining the Red V under Flanagan, and felt that he had been producing some of his best footy of late.
"It's going good. I love it here at the club," he explained.
"It was a bit hard moving away from Manly, I was close to a lot of players there. But over here is pretty good. He's [Flanagan] has taught me a lot. He's one of the reasons I came here. I built a great relationship with him at Manly.
"Moving down here [to the South Coast] makes it easier for me. I'm just trying to build that consistency."
The Roosters challenge
The Dragons face a season defining period heading into Sunday's game at Allianz Stadium.
In the next two weeks it's back-to-back away trips against the Roosters and then the Broncos coming up, before the bye. Then after that, it's the Panthers in Wollongong, Storm away, and lastly, the Bulldogs in Kogarah.
Zac Lomax returns to the side after missing St George Illawarra's last-start win over the Dolphins because of injury.
Lomax comes in the side for Mathew Feagai, who hasn't recovered from injuring his right-shoulder in the win over the Dolphins.
The rest of the 17 remains the same although Jack Bird has been listed among the reserves as he works his way back from an ankle complaint.
In some good news for the Dragons, Joey Manu will not play for the Roosters.
Manu will miss a month of football after suffering two fractures in his hand during the Tri-colours 40-6 win over Wests Tigers last Sunday.
Veteran Michael Jennings gets the call up to re-join the backline in the centres.
Kickoff is 2pm.