Broncos rally over NZ 28-14

July 4, 2009

The stuttering Broncos eventually ran down a desperate NZ Warriors outfit 28-14 last night at Suncorp Stadium, Queensland.

The win coming at a high cost for Brisbane, with big guns Israel Folau and Joel Clinton rushed to hospital for injury concerns. Folau injuring an anke and in obvious pain on the field and Clinton suffering concusion from a big head clash with Jerome Reopati.

The Warriors come out with their old school hot-potato mentality, throwing the ball around on most tackles. And for a while, it was working. The second phase was killing the Broncos, with NZ ensuring plenty of possession and repeat sets – but somehow just struggling to score enough points early on.

After skipping out to a 6-0 lead through a soft Steve Price try, the Warriors took their chances are scored again off a Darren Lockyer fumble – only to have Steve Clark rule no try from the video box. It was a 50/50 call and the decision should have been benefit of the doubt for sure, but again the video man has struggled with the decision.

The breathing space was well needed by the Broncos, trailing 8-0 only moments before the break – they pounced on a drop ball from NZ only metres out from the Warriors line and strolled over the score. So after 40 minutes of virtually all Warriors ball, the Broncos were cruising to the break only down by 4 points.

NZ were being helped by boom rookie Kevin Locke. This kid was explosive, most touches he beat tackler 1 and ran for big metres when had the chance, certainly a player of the future for the Kiwi club.

After an early arm wrestle in the second half, the Broncos crashed over through Lagi Setu near the 1 hour mark to deadlock the scores and setup a strong finish.

But late tries to former Rooster Winterstein and in-form back Steve Michaels allowed the Broncos to snap their 4 game losing streak.

Brisbane also welcomed back old man Tonie Carroll, the man they call Tunza or Cato had a good showing and provided much needed starch to the Broncos pack.

Another standout was Souths bound Dave Taylor who played solidly for the Brisbane side.



Written by NRL News · Filed Under NRL Results 

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