The St George-Illawarra Dragons will be looking to bounce back from last week’s shock 28-14 loss at home to the Gold Coast Titans, while the Brisbane Broncos will seek to consolidate their spot in the top eight. Join us for live scores and blog of the action from 7:30pm tonight.
Despite St George’s dominance in the past two seasons, it is Brisbane who have the wood over their opponents.
The Broncos have been winners in three of their past four against the Dragons, including a 10-6 arm wrestle in the corresponding fixture at Suncorp last year.
Both sides will welcome back their stars from Origin, and the key will be which players can back up after a taxing Origin battle just 48 hours earlier.
The Dragons will be without both Ben Creagh (ankle) and Beau Scott (knee) but expect key winger Brett Morris to return from injury.
For the Broncos, Corey Parker (groin) is a late withdrawal, while Justin Hodges (hamstring) faces another week on the sidelines.
For coach Anthony Griffin it will be the first opportunity to come up against mentor Wayne Bennett, making an interesting sub-plot after Bennett had been tipped to return to Brisbane and replace Griffin prior to linking with Newcastle.
Brisbane’s recent inconsistent form was summed up perfectly when they nearly collapsed from 24-0 up against Canberra last Sunday, and any similiar slip up will be severely punished by the reigning premiers.
The motivation for both sides will be high, with the ultra-consistent Dragons looking to return to winning ways and the Broncos pushing toward a swansong finals appearance for the evergreen Darren Lockyer.
Will a parochial home crowd be enough to get Brisbane over the line?
Join us for pre-game discussion throughout the afternoon, and follow our live updates from 7.30pm AEST.
Teams, Broncos v Dragons
BRONCOS: Josh Hoffman, Dale Copley, Justin Hodges*, Gerard Beale, Jharal Yow Yeh, Darren Lockyer (capt), Peter Wallace, Ben Hannant, Andrew McCullough, Scott Anderson, Sam Thaiday, Alex Glenn, Corey Parker*.
Interchange: Jack Reed, Dunamis Lui, Mitchell Dodds, David Hala.
* Replacements to be confirmed
DRAGONS: Darius Boyd, Brett Morris, Mark Gasnier, Kyle Stanley, Jason Nightingale, Jamie Soward (capt), Ben Hornby, Dan Hunt, Dean Young, Michael Weyman, Beau Scott, Ben Creagh, Matt Prior.
Interchange: Jon Green, Nathan Fien, Adam Cuthbertson, Trent Merrin.
Last Time: Brisbane 10-6 (Round 21 2010, Suncorp Stadium)
Last Five: Brisbane 3, St George 2
Overall: St George 13, Brisbane 12
At This Venue: St George 6, Brisbane 3
Betting: Brisbane $1.95, St George $1.85
Dean - Surry Hills
Guest
Where did the line break figures for St George come from ? If you consider the 3 tries that were not awarded to the Saints - there was a line break in each of them. Are they suddenly discounted as a line break when the video ref adjudicates an error in the put down, or the linesman rules a forward pass after the original line break has occured ?
Stu
Guest
Thanks for the blog Shane. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
Stu
Guest
Well said Garry. Remember the Broncos missed the finals last year by a single game. That's one from the 6 games affected by origin. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
GaryB
Roar Rookie
What has the drive for dollars done to this wonderful game. Let's just give them a shield and sword and let them fight it out to the death. We won't worry about winning premierships, just stuff it up halfway through the comp and not worry about the efforts leading up to the Origin. What a deplorable effort for a few more bucks. Rugby League be ashamed !
Dean - Surry Hills
Roar Pro
What a sham - what a scam. Three tries, that could have gone the other way, but Gene Miles up in video refs box see's that they don't. One Brisbane try off a blatant forward pass - another off a strip that Tangive had already caught in-goal. Benefit of the doubt not given when Tangive has control of the ball (no seperation) and plants it over the line for another St George try. Ref calls forward a line-ball pass at best, which finds Tangive, who then beats two Broncos players to race away for another no-try. Nightingale denied after 7 looks by the video ref - who again rules in favour of the home team, and not benefit of the doubt. Any side that visits Suncorp has to beat the home team by at least double the points that are due to be awarded to them, to come away with a win.
shane
Roar Guru
Cheers
shane
Roar Guru
Surface wasn't the best Stu. Didn't seem to affect the players much though. The officials had more of an impact than the surface.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Thanks Shane - your blog was read by more than 500 readers! Well done - Tristan, Ed.
shane
Roar Guru
Hope you enjoyed the live blog. Good night.
shane
Roar Guru
Broncos - 21 Tackles - 284 Line Breaks - 5 Hitups - 63 Missed Tackles - 19 Penalties - 4 Meters Gained - 1426 Dragons - 14 Tackles - 293 Line Breaks - 3 Hitups - 61 Missed Tackles - 27 Penalties - 1 Meters Gained - 1211
shane
Roar Guru
Dragons lose back to back games. In fact they haven't won in a month. It's been an entertaining game. Red V army would consider themselves a touch unlucky after the try late in the first half, the ball clearly went forward but as I said, that's footy. Broncos almost played the perfect game only giving away 1 penalty. Both teams left it all out there. Some tired players.
shane
Roar Guru
And that's game. Broncos win 21-14. Great effort from both teams.
shane
Roar Guru
Final minute. Brisbane still on the attack. Try to seal it?
shane
Roar Guru
78' Broncos on the attack. 10 out from Dragons line.
shane
Roar Guru
76' Broncos bringing the ball out of their own half. 21-14.
shane
Roar Guru
74' Broncos field goal, and that should be the game. 21-14 with 5 left. Lockyer, fair player.
shane
Roar Guru
74' Dan Hunt offloads from the ground. Penalty Broncos. 50/50 call. Been like that all night really.
shane
Roar Guru
73' Dragons on the attack 35 out from Broncos line. Full set to play with.
shane
Roar Guru
Soward conversion attempt hits the post and bounces away. Margin is 6 to the Broncos. 20-14. 9 minutes left.
Stu
Guest
So Locky played at the ball with his head? This isn't soccer. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.