Brisbane Broncos 2009Brisbane managed to edge out a never-say-die Sydney Roosters outfit to cling to a 28-24 margin at the SFS last night.

Many felt the powerful Broncos backs would be way too much for the Roosters, and with 5 touchdowns coming down the right edge against the Sydney side – things didn’t look good early on.

But to their credit Fittlers men remained in the hint, pushing the respected Broncos to end, with Braith Anasta having a strong game and doing enough to ensure an extremely close finish in the dying minutes..

Anasta toucheddown for a try and then soon after laid on a try for his halves partner Mitchell Pearce after some great work by the in-form Frank-Paul Nuuausala.

Late in the piece, Anasta was in everything – again setting up Willie Mason to crash over – getting the Roosters within 4 points – with just under 5 minutes left in the entertaining match.

While a win is a win, and sure the Broncos will be happy with the 2 points – they may walk away frustrated, after being unable to put the Roosters to the sword completely. With the livewire Hodges and new recruit Israel Folau on deck – it was expected they would have more than enough firepower to win this game easily.

Rookie Broncos flanker Antonio Winterstein continues to grow in stature. This guy really looks the goods, confident and full of speed – nabbing himself two tries for the evening.

Big forward David Taylor was again a menace to the opposition, cutting through the line a few times and setting up a try for Steve Michaels at one stage.

For Sydney, Sam Perret has quickly settled back into the fullback spot left vacant by Minichiello and played well.

His opposite Karmichael Hunt grabbed two tries for the night in a welcome return to form.

Afterwards, Broncos no.7 Peter Wallace was concerned about the late rally by the Roosters – but sung the praises of rookie star Winterstein.

“We sort of clocked off in the 5 and thankfully we held on” he told the media.

“It sort of went up and down the field, I think they were probably on top of us for most of the half.

The first 40 minutes was more of an arm wrestle, with both sides feeling there way in and not risking too much.

It took over half an hour for the first points to come, Brisbane getting over through Karmichael – evading some flat footed Sydney defence to score.

The other interesting battle, was the chase for the NSW Origin Half Back spot – with many feeling Wallace and Pearce are ahead of Jarrod Mullen in the race for the Blue no.7 jersey.

First points going to Brisbane playmaker Wallace who kicked diagonally for Hunt to score under the black dot.

It was nearly a double strike, with Justing Hodges nearly scoring 2 minutes later – only a bad bounce skittling the ball away from Hodges at the last second, off a Hunt stab kick.

In the end, it was probably the attacking prowess of the Brisbane backs that setup the win. Sure, they had to fight hard to save the game late in the piece – but when you score 28 points, you are going to win most nights. The Roosters have improved markedly in recent weeks and fans should be hopefully after some strong showings.

Brisbane 28 (K Hunt 2, A Winterstein 2, S Michaels tries; C Parker 4 conversions)

Sydney Roosters 24 (B Anasta, W Mason, M Pearce, S Perrett tries; B Anasta 3, C Fitzgibbon conversions)

By ricky

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.