Wests Tigers have claimed a nail-biting 19-18 NRL victory over an undermanned Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium.
Led by impressive halfback Luke Brooks, the Tigers held off a furious Broncos finish on Friday night to claim their first win since 2010 in Brisbane.
The home side’s second successive defeat came with them missing more than 1100 NRL appearances due to State of Origin call-ups for Corey Parker, Sam Thaiday, Josh McGuire, Matt Gillett, Darius Boyd and Corey Oates.
The Tigers, who were missing NSW Origin pair Aaron Woods and Robbie Farah, started brightly but fell behind when Jordan Kahu’s cutout pass put winger Greg Eden over for his first NRL try.
New signing Elijah Taylor levelled things when he crashed over after a Brooks’ inside pass and the visitors took the lead as Tim Simona crossed, again after clever work by Brooks.
The visitors should have leapt further ahead in the 48th minute but Simona somehow fumbled a Brooks grubber when he looked certain to score.
Within three minutes, that error looked vital as the Broncos closed to within two points when James Roberts made the most of an offload by Ben Hunt to score.
Joshua Addo-Carr’s try with 16 minutes to go put the Tigers six points clear and then a Mitchell Moses field goal inside the final five minutes appeared to have iced the points.
A sharp cross-field kick by Hunt, however, allowed Lachlan Maranta to bring the Broncos within one point.
Hunt then had the chance to force the game to golden point but missed a field-goal attempt as the siren sounded, condemning the Broncos to their third one-point loss of the season.
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