Broncos surge past clumsy Bunnies

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South Sydney Rabbitohs v Brisbane Broncos

The Brisbane Broncos have strengthened their hold on a top 4 spot with a dominant second half showing against a struggling South Sydney at Sunshine Coast Stadium.

A sloppy first half by both sides didn't deter either side from attempting some expansive attacking footy, but neither outfit managed to take control of the contest after the opening 40 minutes.

Souths opened the scoring after just 6 minutes when they shifted the ball left to Alex Johnston, who stepped back inside to beat the cover defence and score a good try. Blake Taaffe converted.

From the restart George Burgess knocked on, giving the Broncos a scrum deep inside the Souths half. The error was compounded when Brisbane received a set restart. This led to the Broncos scoring a try in the tenth minute when Patrick Carrigan took a hitup towards the middle, but was shut down, however he managed to offload over the top to Reece Walsh, who was surrounded by the defence, so he fired a long ball out to Kotoni Staggs, who accelerated, straightened and got between two defenders and did just enough to get across the line and get the ball down for a try. Adam Reynolds converted

From the restart, Martin Taupau took the hit up but in a bizarre incident, lead with his knees into the tackle and was put on report and then sent to the sin bin. Taaffe kicked a penalty goal and after 13 minutes, Souths had a 2 point lead.

The Broncos regained the lead in the 25th minute when a glorious pass from Walsh found Selwyn Cobbo, who was unmarked and got outside the cover defence, shrugged out of the tackle attempt to score a brilliant try. Reynolds converted.

Right on the stroke of halftime, Campbell Graham barged over to score a try between two poor defensive efforts. Taaffe converted and at the break, Souths held a 14-12 lead.

Three minutes into the second half saw Walsh very nearly score in the corner, but the defence put him into touch just shy of the line. He wouldn't be denied 8 minutes later though as he gets around the outside defence and then steps inside the cover defence to score a good try. Reynolds converted to put the Broncos back in front.

A Cody Walker knock-on deep inside his own half gave the Broncos a great opportunity to score, which they took in the 59th minute when Xavier Willison ran onto a crash ball on the edge of the ruck, barged through the defenders and scored. Reynolds added the extras.

The Broncos crossed against just 4 minutes later when Staggs crashed through two defenders to score a soft try. Reynolds converted to give Brisbane a 30-14 lead with 15 minutes remaining in the contest.

With 11 minutes left on the clock, Jesse Arthars was given ten in the sin bin for a high tackle which Souths immediately capitalised on when Cody Walker held up a lovely pass for Isaiah Tass to score. Taaffe converted.

Any chance of a Bunnies fightback was snuffed out in the 75th minute when Staggs made a break and then linked with Reynolds in support who raced away to score, before converting his own try to seal the game. Broncos cruising to a 36-20 victory.