Roosters breakthrough against lacklustre Broncos

v BYE

The Sydney Roosters have broken a six game losing streak by beating the Brisbane Broncos 32-16 in front of 6,308 fans at Allianz Stadium.

Producing a comprehensive performance at home, the Roosters were rewarded for weeks of close results to all but assure themselves of avoiding the wooden spoon.

Wasting little time in opening the scoring, former Bronco Dale Copley crossed in the third minute after gathering in a well-timed pass from Blake Ferguson.

Suffering a further blow moments later, the Broncos were reduced to 16 players after winger Lachlan Maranta came into contact with Boyd Cordner's knee, forcing the Brisbane flyer off through concussion.

Despite a reshuffled backline, the visitors managed to hit back in the 18th minute through Jarrod Wallace, who crashed over close to the posts.

Tied at 6-all, the Roosters took a healthy advantage into the break with tries to Latrell Mitchell (26th minute) and Blake Ferguson (31st minute) giving the home side an 18-6 lead at halftime.

Having lost six of their past eight matches, the Broncos needed to start the second half strongly to keep their hopes of a top four finish in tact, however poor execution continually cruelled the visitors.

Withstanding the Broncos early second half assault, the Roosters produced a contender for try of the season after Blake Ferguson managed to remain in field before offloading to Shaun Kenny-Dowall to take the score out to 22-6.

Shortly after the Broncos managed to strike back through Tom Opacic in the 54th minute, but against the committed Roosters the visitors failed to reduce the deficit further.

With Boyd Cordner (61st minute) and Dale Copley (66th minute) finishing the Broncos off, the Roosters secured just their fourth win of the season, with a late consolation try to Darius Boyd seeing the score finish 32-16.

In the most controversial moment of the match, a late decision by the Bunker drew the ire of many Brisbane supporters, as Herman Ese'ese was deemed to have performed a double movement, despite video evidence suggesting the interchange forward never lost momentum.

With their season in free fall, the Broncos will be desperate to turn their form around quickly as their hopes of a top four finish are all but finished, while the strong showings by Penrith, New Zealand and Gold Coast could potentially see the early competition favourites miss the finals all together.

Next week the Roosters travel to Penrith on Monday night, while the Broncos will take on an equally disappointing Dragons outfit in Wollongong on Thursday.