Jake Friend has led from the front as the Sydney Roosters defeated NRL arch-rivals South Sydney at Allianz Stadium on Friday night.

With his side missing their representative stars, the Roosters’ No.9 came up with the big plays and was tireless in defence in their gutsy win.

Friend produced the clutch-play in the second-half, putting Aidan Guerra through a gap to make it 14-6 and take the wind out of a Souths fightback.

The Rabbitohs refused to give up and when Angus Crichton skipped across field beating three tacklers, he sent Bryson Goodwin steaming through a gap to reduce the margin to just two points with 12 minutes left.

However, the Roosters held on in front of a crowd of 16,245 to put a huge dent in the Rabbitohs’ top-eight aspirations.

With the Roosters missing Mitchell Pearce, Blake Ferguson, Dylan Napa and Boyd Cordner, Friend was busy in all aspects, setting up both of his side’s four-pointers.

Twice in the second half he came up with a tackle which forced a turnover while the Rabbitohs were inside the Roosters’ half.

He finished with 55 tackles after making 62 tackles the previous two weeks against Cronulla and Melbourne.

Prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was immense, making 192m and 28 tackles while Pearce’s replacement Mitchell Cornish looked a likely prospect and produced a first-class kicking performance.

The Roosters took an 8-0 lead into halftime after Friend poked a clever kick through the line with Joseph Manu diving on the spoils.

After four sets camped down on the Roosters line and receiving three rapid-fire penalties, Souths finally broke through for their opening try in the 51st minute when Robbie Farah burrowed over from dummy-half to make it 8-6.

The Roosters have an injury concern after Michael Gordon came form the field six minutes from time cradling his left arm.