Broncos defence trumps Sharks attack

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Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks v Brisbane Broncos

Brisbane travelled to the Shire to take on the games best attacking unit on Saturday night, and came away with a very impressive defensive performance to produce a stunning 20-12 victory.

The Broncos started the game very strong in defence and especially in attack, thanks to some very powerful running by their middle forwards. Their enthusiasm and early dominance was rewarded in just the 6th minute of the game when a Matt Moylan grubber, 20 metres from the Broncos line, was trapped by the feet of Jordan Riki, who then regathered the loose ball and ran 70 metres before he was reeled in by William Kennedy. On the next play, Kotoni Staggs scooped up the ball from dummy half and raced over to score despite the few goal line defenders. Adam Reynolds failed to convert from out wide.

The Sharks started to get themselves into the game on the back of some brilliant play by Nicho Hynes, who was popping up on the edges on both sides of the field, twice contributing to line breaks only for the play to break down shortly after. But in the 21st minute, he put Siosifa Talakai into space and the big centre broke the line and raced 35 metres to score. Hynes converted to give the Sharks a 6-4 lead.

The turning point then came five minutes before halftime, with the Sharks dominating play. Brisbane on the first tackle of their set and inside their own 10 metres, spread the ball left before a long ball bounces its way along to Corey Oates, who takes it cleanly and then races 55 metres before kicking ahead where the ball bounces awkwardly for Ezra Mam, but he manages to regather perfectly to score a brilliant length of the field try to give the lead back to the Broncos. Reynolds converted.

Three minutes later, Kotoni Staggs put up a delicate little chip kick over the Sharks edge defence and close to their line where Ronaldo Mulitalo misjudged it and tried to reel it in from behind him, but he fails and Jesse Arthars took the ball cleanly to score. Reynolds failed to convert from out wide and at halftime, the Broncos lead 14-6.

The opening 30 minutes of the second half saw no points scored, but the Sharks throwing all they could at the Broncos defence, but try as they might, they couldn't crack them. The Sharks at times looked out of sync, as their attack just continually came up with uncharacteristic errors. In the 70th minute, the Broncos put the game to bed when Reece Walsh got the ball at third receiver close to the Sharks line and held up a lovely ball for Herbie Farnworth who ran a strong line and barged over for a try. Reynolds converted to give the Broncos a 20-6 lead.

Braden Hamlin-Uele and Sione Katoa both went very close to scoring in the following 4 minutes, but it was Kennedy, who grubbered for himself, that finally got the Sharks score moving again. Hynes converted from in front. The Sharks continued pushing and making half chances, but they couldn't advance the scoreline any further, the Broncos winning a good contest by 8 points.