That first year he scored two tries in the Dragons' 1949 Grand Final victory over the South Sydney Rabbitohs and was the League's season top try scorer with 25 tries from 19 games.

[3] For the first two Tests of the 1950 domestic Ashes series against Great Britain, Roberts was overlooked by selectors for other wingers including his club teammate Noel Pidding.

An overlap developed by Doug McRitchie resulting in centre Keith Middleton sending the ball out to an unmarked Roberts who ran 40 metres and crossed in the corner for the only try of the match and a 5–2 win.

[4] The victory gave Australia the Ashes for the first time since 1920 and as a result the memorable impact of that moment dwarfed Roberts' short but classy career.

[9] The Dragons refused this and did not include Roberts amongst their list of 47 players,[10] with the result that he played for Picton in the Group 6 competition and represented Country that winter.