BRISBANE BRONCOS 18 SYDNEY ROOSTERS 24
Suncorp Stadium, Friday 

BRISBANE’S woes continued as Sydney condemned them to a seventh straight NRL defeat.

The hosts survived an early scare when James Tedesco stole in from close range after a spiralling bomb caused havoc, but his effort was ruled out for a knock-on.

Roosters did though find a way through from their next attempt on six minutes after another swirling kick was batted backwards, quickly shifting the play left for Billy Smith to go over out wide.

Broncos found their feet and began to pile on the pressure, which soon turned into points. Thomas Duffy capitalised on a lovely offload to score from close range before the halfback turned provider for Brendan Piakura to turn the game on its head.

Robert Toia reacted quickest to a grubber to level the scores again just before the half-hour, but despite Reece Walsh failing in a drop-goal attempt, the Broncos edged back ahead on the stroke of half-time, Grant Anderson pouncing on an error before racing down the wing to put his side 16-12 in front at the break.

Roosters quickly found their feet in the second half, Smith finding just enough space to squeeze over into the corner, before Sam Walker, making his 100th NRL appearance, finished off a flowing team move just after the hour.

As Broncos’ discipline began to wane, Walker fired the visitors further ahead with a penalty to widen the gap to eight with just less than ten minutes remaining.

Though the hosts responded themselves from the tee through Thomas Duffy, the gap proved too much to bridge.

BRONCOS: 1 Reece Walsh, 2 Josiah Karapani, 3 Kotoni Staggs, 4 Grant Anderson, 5 Jesse Arthars, 6 Thomas Duffy, 7 Ben Hunt, 8 Preston Riki, 9 Cory Paix, 10 Payne Haas, 11 Brendan Piakura, 12 Jordan Riki, 13 Xavier Willison. Subs: 14 Blake Mozer, 15 Ben Talty, 16 Aublix Tawha, 17 Jack Gosiewski, 18 Hayze Perham (not used), 19 Josh Rogers (not used)

Tries: Duffy (18), Piakura (23), Anderson (38); Goals: Duffy 3/4

ROOSTERS: 1 James Tedesco, 2 Billy Smith, 3 Hugo Savala, 4 Robert Toia, 5 Mark Nawaqanitawase, 6 Daly Cherry-Evans, 7 Sam Walker, 8 Naufahu Whyte, 9 Reece Robson, 10 Lindsay Collins, 11 Nat Butcher, 12 Siua Wong, 13 Victor Radley. Subs: 14 Connor Watson, 15 Spencer Leniu, 16 Egan Butcher, 17 Salesi Foketi, 18 Rex Bassingthwaighte (not used), 19 Tommy Talau (not used)

Tries: Smith (6, 43), Toia (27), Walker (61); Goals: Walker 4/5

SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 6-6, 12-6, 12-12, 16-12; 16-16, 16-22, 16-24, 18-24

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match

Broncos: Payne Haas; Roosters: Billy Smith

Penalty count: 7-7; Half-time: 16-12; Referee: Grant Atkins; Attendance: 39,826