An 80th-minute penalty from Jamayne Isaako gave Brisbane Broncos a 22-20 win over Canterbury Bulldogs.
Rhyse Martin scored only five minutes into his NRL debut to give the Bulldogs a great start. Moses Mbye broke the line when he stepped past Anthony Milford before feeding Martin.
But plenty of Broncos pressure followed and it eventually told when Darius Boyd threw a cut-out pass to Corey Oates.
An Mbye penalty pushed the Bulldogs ahead against the run of play and then a Boyd slip allowed Marcelo Montoya to set up Matt Frawley for a simple try.
Brisbane were down 14-6 at half-time but came back into the game early in the second period. Milford found Alex Glenn who sauntered in behind the sticks.
David Klemmer was penalised for dissent allowing Isaako to level up the scores. But the Bulldogs were to go back into the lead with 15 to go. Will Hopoate broke the line on the right and kicked in-field. The ball evaded Jack Bird and fell for Kerrod Holland.
The scores were level with five to go when Joe Ofahengaue supported James Roberts when he came back inside.
With one minute left, Mbye was sin-binned for a professional foul on Boyd and Isaako took the two to give the Broncos the win
Broncos: Boyd, Oates, Roberts, Opacic, Isaako, Milford, Bird, Lodge, McCullough, Thaiday, Glenn, Su’A, Pangai jnr; Interchanges: Haas, Ofahengaue, Nikorima, Sims
Tries: Oates, Glenn, Ofahengaue; Goals: Isaako 5
Bulldogs: Mbye, B Morris, J Morris, Hopoate, Montoya, Frawley, Foran, Woods, Marshall-King, Fualalo, Martin, Faitala-Mariner, Jackson; Interchanges; Klemmer, Elliott, Priest, Holland
Tries: Martin, Frawley, Holland; Goals: Mbye 4
Sin-bin: Mbye (79) – professional foul
Full match reports of all this weekend’s NRL games will feature in Monday’s League Express.