Round 9
Brisbane Broncos 12 l. Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 30

2008 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Manly run over the Broncos
Sun May 11, 2008
Source: www.broncos.com.au

The WOW Brisbane Broncos were defeated convincingly by the Manly Sea-Eagles 30-12 at Suncorp Stadium this afternoon.

The loss was the first time this season Brisbane have failed to go on to victory after leading at half-time.

The home side failed to score in the second half, conceding four unanswered tries, at the start of what coach Wayne Bennett describes as a tough time.

"The next two months is really tough time for us," said Bennett.

"There's eight games and its going to be really tough - today was day one and its not going to get any easier."

"We were certainly up against it, but we were brave, and some days that's all you can do."

Manly levelled the scores after just seven minutes of the second half, when Steve Bell hit the line hard and went straight through the defence.

Matt Orford struck the conversion sweetly to level the scores.

The Sea Eagles then took the lead through veteran lock-forward Steve Menzies who received a magic ball from Orford to run in under the posts.

Orford sank the easy conversion and the Manly led 18-12 after 53 minutes.

The visitors then made it three unanswered when substitute Heath l'estrange released Big Brent kite through a hole with no one home.

Orford made it four from four and stretched the lead to two converted tries.

Ben Hannant was as committed as always, putting everything in to each hit up, before a full speed head clash saw him leave the field with blood pouring from his mouth.

Brisbane looked disheartened as Manly crossed for their sixth try in the 71st minute, this time through Brett Stuart who was quickest to react to a loose ball in the Brisbane in-goal.

Orford converted extending the score to 30-12, in favour of the away side.

The game began evenly with Jamie Lyon creating the only real chances of the first 10 minutes, before an astute kick from Karmichael Hunt gave Denan kemp an opportunity.

Kemp had a lot of work to do to gather and sty in the field of play, but he made it across the chalk to break the deadlock.

Ennis (pictured) missed the difficult conversion and the scored remained 4-0 after 12 minutes.

Just three minutes later the home side were in again through Ennis, who retrieved a Wallace grubber-kick under the posts.

He successfully converted his own try stretching the Broncos lead to 10 points in the first quarter of an hour.

Scoring from kicks was all the rage as Manly finally got off the mark in the 27th minute when Michael Robertson rose above Reece Robinson to claim the ball and run it in under the posts.

Lyon converted the try to decrease the margin back to 4.

A dangerous tackle on David Taylor gifted Ennis a penalty shot, to put the Broncos a converted try ahead at the break, 12-6.

MANLY SEA EAGLES 30 (M Robertson, S Bell, S Menzies, B Kite, B Stewart tries; M Orford 5 goals) BRISBANE BRONCOS 12 (D Kemp, M Ennis tries; M Ennis 2 goals) at Suncorp Stadium.

Report Source: www.broncos.com.au

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