He was seeing stars last week but Sydney Roosters prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves believes his side can now reach them after Saturday's comfortable NRL semi-final win over Penrith.

The giant Kiwi, who was poleaxed by a huge hit from Wests Tigers' backrower Simon Dwyer in the previous weekend's epic victory, bounced back to produce another strong performance at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Waerea-Hargreaves revealed he had to undergo psychometric testing before being cleared to play and joked it was the first time in his life he had passed any kind of exam.

And the former Manly frontrower believes the Roosters have the momentum to carry them to a first grand final since 2004 ahead of next Friday's preliminary final against the Gold Coast.

"I was kind of shocked," Waerea-Hargreaves said about his concussion.

"When some bloke whacks you sort of think in your head 'Shit, if I run like that am I going to be whacked again exactly the same?'

"Things go through your head at the time, I guess you've got to cop it on the chin and play on.

"Being a young guy you just want to get out there and play. I pulled up fine and said to (coach) Brian Smith I was good to go.

"The second half for us tonight was very enjoyable and a lot less stressful than last week, we trained sharply this week and although we were not always at our best we did what we had to do and that is a good sign.

"We will go to Brisbane full of confidence and there is no reason why we can't win up there."

Waerea-Hargreaves was also at the centre of a comical moment in the second half when Penrith's fiery but diminutive five-eighth Travis Burns tried to pick a fight with his 109kg, 193cm opponent.

A frustrated Burns took exception to Waerea-Hargreaves catching one of his Panthers teammates with a swinging arm and tried to take matters into his own hands.

The former North Queensland and Manly playmaker was then admonished by referee Shayne Hayne, who began his lecture with: "He's a lot bigger than you to start with."

However, there was no hard feelings from Waerea-Hargreaves who said he enjoyed that side of the game.

"It was my fault I should have not gone in with the swinging arm and he did the right thing by his team ... I would have done the same," he said

"Burnsy is a good bloke and he plays the game hard which is how I like it."

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