Broncos cop capital punishment from Raiders

Talk about a game of two halves. Canberra wanted it more than Brisbane in the first half, and the Broncos wanted it more than the Raiders in the second.

But it's a lot harder to chase on the road than it is to stay in front at home, as the Broncos found out in the end as the Raiders edged to a 22-14 NRL victory.

Sometimes, statistics don't paint an accurate picture of how a game is progressing. After 20 minutes of last night's match, they screamed the truth. Line breaks: 3-0 to Canberra. Offloads: 6-1 to Canberra. Missed tackles: 8-2 to Brisbane. Metres gained: 381-228 to Canberra. The only main area in which the two teams were close was errors - the Raiders were dropping the ball just as much as the Broncos.

It was 12-0 to Canberra at that stage - and could so easily have been more. Their two tries had come via a combination of good ball movement wide of the ruck and a lack of desperation in defence. Centre Joel Thompson strode through the defensive line and easily palmed off an attempted tackle from fullback Corey Norman for the first, and fullback Josh Dugan scored the second after his own pass was deflected back to him by a defender.

The Broncos lacked urgency, and even their trademark moves were coming up empty. Giant centre Israel Folau is famous for rising above defenders to catch bombs and score tries, but when he couldn't come down with the ball in the 23rd minute Dugan turned defence into attack by running it from the in-goal back to halfway. Later in that set, Joel Thompson looked set to score his second try until three Broncos combined to force him touch in-goal before he could get the ball down.

That was as desperate as Brisbane's defence got in the first half, but as poorly as they had played they could have been within touching distance had they restricted the Raiders to that 12-point advantage until half-time. But, as so often happens when one team is keener than the other, that period late in a half, when players are battling mental and physical tiredness, proved critical.

Brisbane's defence collapsed again and the Raiders scored again, through halfback Josh McCrone, and with five-eighth Terry Campese converting for the third time the home side went to the break leading 18-0.

We've seen plenty of examples already in this competition of teams coming back from big deficits to either win or, at least, make a serious game of it, so the possibility of a Broncos victory could not be ruled out. But the manner in which they had gone about their business in the first half did not inspire confidence. A positive for them was that they had half-time to talk about it - and hopefully tell each other a few home truths. Whatever was said, they came out an improved side in the second half.

There was still plenty of dropped ball from both teams, but the Broncos were improving in all of the other key areas and were rewarded with two tries to Folau - in the 44th and 56th minutes, with one conversion from lock Corey Parker - to put them back in the game at 18-10 down. Now the Raiders had to find something, but it was becoming increasingly difficult as the Broncos drove at their line with wave after wave of attack.

Another Brisbane try, this time to second-rower Ben Te'o in the 68th minute - after the Raiders had been starved of possession - and it was anybody's game, even though Norman missed with the conversion attempt. The Raiders held on in the end, icing the result with McCrone's second try, a few seconds out from fulltime. But it was not convincing.

CANBERRA 22 (J McCrone 2, J Dugan, JThompson tries; T Campese 3 goals) beat BRISBANE 14 (I Folau 2, B Te'o tries; C Parker goal) at Canberra Stadium. Referee: Gavin Badger, Phil Haines. Crowd: 14,200.

- © Fairfax NZ News