SYDNEY Roosters five-eighth Braith Anasta branded his Dragons counterpart Richie Williams a "loudmouth" and predicted he would be "back in reserve grade where he belongs" after helping the club to its first win of the season yesterday.

Williams had lit a fuse for yesterday's Anzac Day clash by telling the Herald on Tuesday that Anasta was a shadow of his former self. But after the Roosters' 18-4 victory - their 1000th - the Test and Origin representative labelled the comments "garbage", and returned serve with more vigour than Andre Agassi.

"For someone who's done absolutely nothing in the game, it's a pretty big call," Anasta said. "His performance today probably showed where he is as a person. I think he'll be back in reserve grade next week where he belongs."

The 20-year-old Williams had told the Herald: "He's not as good as he was back then, trust me … he is still pretty good, but I want to get over the top of him."

Asked what he thought about Williams's comments, Anasta said: "It's garbage. You're preparing yourself for a game and you've got a bloke who's played a couple of games trying to criticise you - and then he turns up and plays like that - it just fires you up even more. It fires the team up, so he did a good job for us today, Richie Williams.

"He can try it every game. It's a pity for his teammates, having to put up with that. They would have been fired up for a match … they're all great blokes who turn up to play football and their teammate's a loudmouth like that. It doesn't help."

The two marked each other and clashed heatedly in the 37th minute at a scrum. Williams was about to feed the scrum when Anasta, at halfback, gave him a gobful which sparked some push-and-shove.

"I just said, 'Are you going to do anything or are you just going to pass the ball'," Anasta said. "Then … he passed the ball. He wanted to talk the talk but he didn't walk the walk." They did not shake hands after the game.

Dragons coach Nathan Brown had warned Williams about making provocative comments. However, he said they would not count against him at the selection table next week, despite hinting at changes to the team.

"It wouldn't matter if Richie played five games or 500 games," Brown said. "I have spoken to him once before, and I will talk to him again, that he is best off showing a little bit more respect to opposition sides and players. A lot of those things come back to bite you."

Anasta has been arguably the Roosters' best player this season, and was near the top of his game yesterday at Aussie Stadium.

He was the key player in two of the Roosters' tries in trying conditions, kicking high for centre Sam Perrett in the first half and sending a wonderful cut-out pass to winger Shaun Kenny-Dowall in the second, getting on the outside of Williams to do so.

"If he [Williams] wants to talk himself into playing well, good luck to him," Roosters skipper Craig Fitzgibbon said. "But he should probably get the runs on the board before he starts. Braith's been around for a while - he's been around for six weeks."

Meanwhile, Gold Coast coach John Cartwright said he hoped controversy surrounding the obstruction rule - and the $5000 fine that came with it - would lead to a greater understanding of the law by the video officials.

Video referee Steve Nash was dumped this week after awarding a Manly try after Sea Eagles halfback Matt Orford had clearly run behind second-rower Glenn Stewart early in the Manly-Gold Coast contest last Sunday.

"Hopefully with the spotlight on it, there won't be the same confusion," said Cartwright, who was issued a breach notice after entering Nash's box. "The video ref has no discretion - once a player runs behind a decoy, it's a penalty."

Asked if Nash's axing was any consolation, Cartwright said: "Not at all. It's just a sign of the incompetence that we have.

"I've had conversations with Robert [Finch, the referees' boss], and I understand it … those guys communicate with him on a daily basis and they don't get it. We've got enough hard things to decide, let alone getting the simple things wrong. When a decision goes to the video ref, 95 per cent of us should have a pretty good idea of what's going on, but it's a fair dinkum lottery when we're talking about obstruction."