Dragons give Broncos too great a head start

 

Roar Pro

By Paul Arandale, 31 Mar 2012 Paul Arandale is a Roar Pro

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 Brisbane Broncos, NRL, Rugby League, St George Illawarra Dragons

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I knew the Dragons where in trouble before the kick off when Brisbane ran onto Suncorp Stadium wearing the replica jersey from their 1992 and 1993 premierships. The Broncos defeated the Dragons in both of those grand final wins.

For mine it is still the best Broncos jersey, and it would be great to see them wear that strip more often.

In the end, Brisbane’s early start was too much for the Dragons, with the home side defeating the visitors 28 to 20 in front of 38,012 fans.

The Broncos dominated the first half with a majority share of possession. Corey Norman opened the scoring followed by Peter Wallace.

Young hooker Andrew McCullough is getting better with every game and could well be in line for an Origin berth if anything happens to Cameron Smith.

McCullough scored Brisbane’s third try with a solo effort from dummy half, then backed that effort up with a forty/twenty in their next set of six.

The Dragons’ only real chance of the first half came through bac-rower Matt Prior, who dropped the ball inches from the try line.

The Broncos then went up the other end of the park to score their fourth try with Alex Glen charging over out wide.

The Dragons finally got off the mark with a fantastic try from Kiwi Jason Nightingale.

It didn’t take long to get their second, when Ben Hornby delivered the perfect pass to Kyle Stanley who ran a great line to cross over untouched.

With 25 minutes to go the Dragons had a sniff and the Broncos seemed edgy.

A chance turned into gold from the scrum base, with Jamie Soward putting a kick in behind the line for Brett Morris to score, grounding the ball with his torso instead of his hands – rule the NRL need to change.

The Dragons were in sight and only eight points behind. A tense arm wrestle developed and it was the Broncos who would finish on top.

Matt Gillett scored the Broncos’ first try of the second half to extend their lead to 14, but the Dragons didn’t give in. Matt Prior crossed out wide and Soward converted to put them back within eight points.

But the early damage from the first half was too much to pull back for the Dragons with the Broncos winning 28 to 20. Andrew McCullough was the best on-field closely followed by Matt Gillett, Alex Glen and Peter Wallace.