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Broncos charge back into top eight
Updated
Scoring machine...Israel Folau scored both of the Broncos' tries. (Getty Images: Bradley Kanaris)
Superstar centre Israel Folau scored two tries to boost Brisbane back into the top half of the competition with a 10-6 defeat of ladder leader St George Illawarra at Lang Park on Sunday afternoon.
The Broncos came into the clash having lost their last three at home and apart from their semi-final victory over the Dragons in Brisbane last September, they had not beaten the Red V on local turf since May 2004.
After Folau crossed in the 31st minute, the scoreline was stuck at 4-0 for 40 minutes as the the two sides engaged in a bruising arm wrestle for ascendancy.
With 10 minutes to go, the Broncos number four managed to evade the Dragons' crushing defensive pressure to gather a bomb spilled by Brett Morris and touch down.
The Dragons claimed Folau had illegally taken out half Ben Hornby as he chased down the Peter Wallace bomb.
Broncos veteran Corey Parker slotted the conversion for a 10-0 lead with just 10 minutes left.
But the Dragons hit back when winger Brett Morris broke their duck for the day with his 17th try of the season to set up a tense finish.
While points may have been scarce, the 42,269 spectators were kept on the edge of their seats by the tight nature of the contest.
Brisbane coach Ivan Henjak will be happy with his team's defensive effort after seeing his charges give up 34 points on Monday against the Sydney Roosters.
Parker told Grandstand that the Broncos learned their lesson last round.
"A lot of hard work went in there today," he said.
"Last week we leaked 34 points and that's not our game.
"To be successful in this competition you can't do that, so this week was a matter of hanging in there for each other and doing the job and I thought today we did that well."
Brisbane half-back Wallace and Dragons lock Beau Scott were placed on report over an incident in the 14th minute when Wallace hit Scott high and the NSW Origin representative appeared to throw an elbow at the Bronco.
The bruising defensive game gave way as both sides fatigued towards the end of the second half, giving the smaller players a chance to open up the play.
Dragons five-eighth Jamie Soward made some impressive runs into space but was unable to take it all the way to the tryline.
"We're knackered mate, we came up and put a lot into this game and it just showed by the quality that no team wanted to give up [in defence]," he said.
"It's pretty hard to take defeat.
"The little fellas got the back end of both halves, we were just unfortunate we didn't execute.
"At the end [with Morris' try] we showed what we can do with the ball when we're chasing points, but we can't leave it until the 70th minute every week."
St George's form has stuttered in recent weeks, with Sunday's defeat marking the side's first back-to-back losses for the season after going down to the Titans in extra-time last round.
But Soward said there is not cause for panic just yet.
"It's very concerning, but that said we lost by a point [to Gold Coast] and lost by four points [today]," he said.
"If we let 30 in and were not scoring many it'd be more alarming, but we'll learn from the lessons.
"It was like a finals game so it's good preparation for us."
Brisbane: 10 (I Folau 2 tries; C Parker 1/2 conversions)
St George Illawarra: 6 (B Morris try; J Soward 1/1 conversions)
- ABC/AAP
First posted
