Roosters run riot on horror night for Broncos

The Roosters made a statement on Friday night at Suncorp Stadium with a dominant 40-18 victory over the Broncos, who are counting the cost following two major injury blows. 

A first-half double from Angus Crichton and a second-half brace from Terrell May did much of the damage on the scoreboard, with the Tricolours led brilliantly by captain James Tedesco who had 227 metres, two try assists and nine tackle breaks. 

While the defeat will be of concern to coach Kevin Walters, even more devastating was the loss of skipper Adam Reynolds to a suspected biceps injury which could sideline him long term.

Reliable winger Jesse Arthars also faces a long stint out after suffering a broken jaw in the first half. 

The final scoreline in some ways didn't do justice to what was a high-quality game, with the Roosters only pulling away in the final quarter and with Brisbane having their fair share of bad luck on the injury front to contend with. 

Earlier it had been the hosts who made the better start, with Jordan Riki charging onto an Ezra Mam short ball for first points, before Joey Manu grabbed an offload flung back in field from Dom Young to reply. 

After Brisbane lost Arthars the Roosters struck twice in the space of 11 minutes through Angus Crichton to take an 18-6 lead into the sheds. 

The injury situation got much worse six minutes into the second period when Reynolds went down, but on the field Brisbane didn't let it faze them and they ran in two tries in as many minutes to tie scores with half an hour to play. 

Reece Walsh was the key figure in both efforts, setting up Kotoni Staggs before making space for Mam to weave through. 

But that was the end of the reasons to celebrate, with Deine Mariner soon ending up in the sin bin for a shoulder charge and Tedesco promptly sparking his side back into life. 

A double followed to May, before Young scored in the corner to bring up 40 with nine minutes to play. 

Match Snapshot The loss was Brisbane's first in seven games at Suncorp Stadium. The Roosters have now won five of their past six games against the Broncos. The Roosters made 10 line breaks in the win and registered 15 offloads.  Brisbane winger Jesse Arthars suffered a broken jaw in the first half and was taken to hospital, before captain Adam Reynolds suffered a biceps injury which ended his game.  Nat Butcher went on report for a dangerous tackle in the 15th minute, while Deine Mariner was sin-binned and placed on report for a shoulder charge in the 54th minute.  Play of the Game

With their halfback having just left the field injured, Reece Walsh and Ezra Mam imposed themselves on the contest with devastating results here. After each playing a role in the build up, it was Kotoni Staggs who broke free and passed to Mam to finish the play off. 

What They Said

"We did well to get back into the game and then we weren't content, we just wanted to keep pulling the trigger on different things... we are still learning the NRL, it's tough, and if you don't continually do things well then you get exposed, and we got exposed tonight. Tonight we got kick happy, I don't know why, it wasn't part of the plan." – Broncos coach Kevin Walters.

"I thought our resilience was really good for the first half. Possession was against us, but we worked really hard and then I felt like the guys were running really well, but there was also a freedom to how they played to go up 18-6 and then 18-all and then to get to 40 [points]. I really liked the balance between the hardness that we played with but then also the freedom." – Roosters coach Trent Robinson. 

What's Next

Another Friday night game for the Broncos in Round 10 when they travel to CommBank Stadium to play the Eels, while the Roosters have the benefit of a nine-day turnaround before hosting the Warriors at Allianz Stadium.