The Brisbane Broncos have handed the New Zealand Warriors their first loss of the season with a 27-18 victory in front of a big Auckland crowd at Mt Smart Stadium.
Looking for their first win in three weeks, the Broncos started the match with the best start possible when Corey Oates created something out of nothing when he took off from near the sideline and ran 30m and managed to keep his arm off the ground to reach out and score.
The Warriors hit back just four minutes later when Shaun Johnson ran the ball and then threw a long pass out to David Fusitua who tiptoed the touchline and scored in the corner and following a great conversion from Johnson the scores were level. The sides continued the tit for tat battle when the Warriors took the lead with a penalty goal before the Broncos hit back with their own penalty goal
The Broncos then hit back and took the lead when James Roberts found space and broke through some weak defence and found Jamayne Isaako who scored outwide. Isaako then extended the Broncos lead out to a converted try when he slotted a penalty goal. The tit for tat nature of the game meant that the Warriors werenext to score and it wasn't without luck they did when Blake Green scored off his own kick after it bounced off the uprights. Anthony Milford took the lead again for the Broncos when he slotted a 39th minute field goal.
The start of the second half for the Broncos was a repeat of what they did in the first half when they crossed for the Jaydn Su'a used some strong footwork to break through the line and got down low to score. The Broncos were creating all the attacking pressure and making good metres out of their own end but couldn't add to the scoreboard until the 64th minute. The Broncos scored their fourth try when Jamayne Isaako had a blade of grass between his heel and the sideline in the dive for the corner to extend the lead out to 27-14.
The Warriors hit back with 8 minutes to go to potentially set up a grandstand finish when Shaun Johnson crossed but it was all the Warriors could manage in the second half and the Warriors suffered their first loss of the season.
Next weekend, The Warriors host the undefeated Dragons at Mt Smart Stadium on Friday night whilst the Broncos return back to Suncorp Stadium for a blockbuster clash against the Melbourne Storm also on Friday night.