Brisbane Broncos survive a thrilling conclusion to theirย match against the Cronulla Sharks to win 12-10 at Suncorp Stadium.
MATCH DETAILS
This game began with teams going back and forth at each end for the opening 10 minutes. A shift from Matt Moylan wanting to spread wide was intercepted by Darius Boyd to run away and link with Corey Oates for the first try in the 15th minute. Just moments later Sharks marched up to the Broncos line to have a second phase play find Andrew Fifita on the left edge and passing to his fullback Holmes through the middle to lead 6-4. A hit back from Broncos had their prop forward Matt Lodge muscle through under the posts to score a four-pointer and lead 10-6 at halftime. The fatigued Brisbane pack allowed bench utility James Segeyaro jump out of marker to split the defence and pass to Valentine Holmes for his second try of the night. The rest of the fixture was a nail-biting affair with the scores 12-10 after a penalty kick made by Broncos, with the game staying the same score come full time.
FOUR POINTERS
BRISBANE OUTLAST BARRAGE
The home side came off a 50 point thrashing the round before returning in a close game against the Sharks having their work cut out for them. Broncos with 26 minutes remaining in the second half was able to withstand an onslaught of Cronulla attack on their goal line to scramble and find a way out of it to win 12-10. Brisbane had the pressure on with three errors by them all coming in the last 10 minutes of the match but theyย were able to group and engage the Sharks players quickly to stop any last-ditch victory for the away side.
HOLMES HOT STREAK
A rough start for the current Cronulla fullback for Valentine Holmes this season was short lived with the Queensland winger coming back into tremendous form. Holmes against the Broncos was outstanding just after playing his best game in the number one position against Raiders the week previous, Valentine raked up 180 metres in 20 runs with another two tries to his 2018 tally. The Sharks superstar found his 4th double of the season and moving to the top of the NRL tryscoring ladder with 17 tries in his last 14 matches.
CONTROLLED KICKING
It was a clinical display of kicking from the Broncos halves in a crucial game for their season. Anthony Milford has multiple touches throughout the 80 minutes which ultimately won the game for his side with assistance by Kodi Nikorima having measured kicks finding the touchline late also. Brisbane’s chief playmaker Milford had 370 kick metres against the Sharks with two huge grubber kicks that pressured the opposition to force dropouts.
TOWNSEND CONVERSION
In one of the biggest games towards the business end of the season, a blunder by Sharks halfback Chad Townsend was made. In hindsight, the conversion after Holmes second try lost Cronulla the game in what was such an easy kick in front made by the fullback. The position of the try behind the posts still had Townsend send the ball into the post uprights which at the time made the scores level at 10 all, but eventually, it was their downfall giving a penalty conversion to Broncos which won them the match.
THE RESULT
Broncos 12
Tries:ย Oates, Lodge
Goals:ย Kahu 2/3
Sharks 10
Tries:ย Holmes (2)
Goals:ย Townsend 1/2
SQUADS
Broncos: 1 Jamayne Isaako, 2 Corey Oates, 3 James Roberts, 4 Darius Boyd (c), 5 Jordan Kahu, 6 Anthony Milford, 7 Kodi Nikorima,15 Joe Ofahengaue, 9 Andrew McCullough, 10 Sam Thaiday, 11 Alex Glenn, 12 Tevita Pangai jnr, 13 Josh McGuire
Interchange: 8 Matthew Lodge, 14 Kotoni Stags, 16 Korbin Sims, 17 David Fifita
Sharks: 1 Valentine Holmes, 2 Sione Katoa, 3 Jesse Ramien, 4 Ricky Leutele, 20 Sosaia Feki, 6 Matt Moylan, 7 Chad Townsend, 8 Andrew Fifita, 9 Jayden Brailey, 10 Matt Prior, 11 Luke Lewis, 14 Scott Sorensen, 13 Paul Gallen (c)
Interchange: 15 James Segeyaro, 16 Aaron Woods, 17 Jayson Bukuya, 18 Joseph Paulo
