Broncos escape Canberra comeback

Updated June 12, 2011 17:00:00

A young Broncos side showed both their promise and fragility before sneaking home to a 25-24 golden-point victory over the Raiders at Lang Park on Sunday.

Experienced half-back Peter Wallace stood tall in the first period of extra time to land the winning field goal from 40 metres out after his side had thrown away a 24-0 lead with just over 15 minutes remaining.

"It felt really good off the boot and thankfully it went over," Wallace said of his 83rd minute winner.

"It has been 10 minutes of each game the last few weeks that has really let us down and today it nearly cost us again. Thankfully we won in the end."

Tries to stand-in captain Alex Glenn, Dale Copley and Gerard Beale in the first half followed by a Josh Hoffman four-pointer nine minutes after the break had the weakened Broncos on a fast-track to a valuable victory.

But Canberra dug deep and launched an amazing comeback, scoring four tries in the space of nine frenetic minutes to remarkably lock the scores at 24-24.

Josh Papalii came of the bench to score two of those while Glen Buttriss and Jarrod Croker crossed to lift the Raiders from certain defeat.

During the Raiders' period of dominance, the Broncos did not touch the ball for an astonishing 15 minutes.

"It's momentum, once you get it it's hard to stop sometimes, it took us 25 minutes to get it back today," Wallace added.

"It's a young team, you just have to learn when the other team get's that momentum to stop it straight away,"

After a pair of failed attempts by Corey Norman, Wallace took over the field goal duties in golden point and did not let his side down with a sweetly-hit one-pointer to win the match.

The Broncos now have a four-point buffer from sixth spot while Canberra sits dead last.

It was just the second win in 13 games by the Broncos without skipper Darren Lockyer, who along with Sam Thaiday, Corey Parker, Ben Hannant and Jharal Yow Yeh, was on Queensland Origin duty.

Canberra has won only two of its past 17 games in Queensland.

The Raiders failed comeback was in stark contrast to last week when they jumped to a 22-0 lead, only to be overrun 40-24 by North Queensland in Canberra.

Broncos: 25 (A Glenn, D Copley, G Beale, J Hoffman tries; P Wallace 3 conversions; penalty; field goal)

Raiders: 24 (J Papalii 2, G Butriss, J Croker tries; B Ferguson 4 conversions)

-ABC/AAP

Tags: sport, rugby-league, nrl, australia, act, canberra-2600, qld, brisbane-4000

First posted June 12, 2011 16:12:00

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Sheens scathing despite Tigers escape

By Joel Zander

Updated May 21, 2011 22:51:00

Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens savaged his underperforming charges, urging them to "grow up and wake up" after they escaped with a scrappy 20-18 win over a severely undermanned Penrith at Campbelltown Sports Stadium.

The Tigers relied on another miracle play from star playmaker Benji Marshall and a late four-pointer to winger Mitch Brown to scrape home against a Panthers outfit missing skipper Petero Civoniceva and centre Michael Jennings to Origin duty, as well as full-back Michael Gordon (knee) and centre Timana Tahu (torn pectoral muscle).

To cap it off, five-eighth Travis Burns was a late withdrawal after suffering a complication with a pain-killing injection to his knee in the warm-up.

Sheens was scathing of his side's performance when he spoke with ABC Grandstand, saying it will be "the first win I've ever looked at that I'll be unhappy to look at".

"It was a pretty ordinary game of footy from both sides to be quite honest, a lot of mistakes, a lot of penalties, just a stop-start affair and some stupid decisions made by our players and some very, very simple drop ball," Sheens said.

"You can live with mistakes, but some of the things there tonight were unacceptable if you want to call yourself a first-grade team.

"Simple errors... trying to unload a ball in traffic when you just had to take the tackle... some decisions are going to have to be made.

"We didn't celebrate the win at all, we've got to get ourselves ready for St George next week - they'll run 100 past us if we play like that.

"This side's got to grow up and wake up."

With new football director Phil Gould watching on from the sidelines, the Panthers appeared poised to back up last round's upset win over the Broncos when they led 18-10 following a 51st minute converted try to full-back Lachlan Coote.

But Benji Marshall had other ideas, capitalising on an error from Panthers winger David Simmons to scoop up the ball, elude Coote and streak 85 metres down the right touchline to dot down and convert, bringing his team to within two.

With the bit between their teeth, the Tigers then stole the competition points when hooker Robbie Farah put Brown over for a well-worked try.

Sheens however was far from satisfied, the escape glossing over the fact the Tigers have struggled to string together any consistency this season, with consecutive wins only chalked up in rounds two and three.

"I'm sick to death of people thinking 'oh yeah, we got away with it but that's OK, we got our two points'," he said.

"The team deserves better, the club deserves better and the fans deserve better than that."

Sheens was determined the abysmal display would not be lost in the result.

"There'll be no hiding in that performance," he said.

"Some guys had pretty ordinary games, discipline wise.

"The referee's standing there, naming you, telling you to get back onside and you still stayed there and give away a penalty.

"You need a rocket for that and they'll be getting one."

The Mountain Men had snatched a 12-10 half-time lead when Simmons latched on to a Marshall deflection from a Coote pass to score.

Utility Masada Iosefa was Penrith's other first-half try-scorer, taking his starting chance with both hands after replacing Burns.

Stand-in Panthers skipper Luke Lewis was again immense, shrugging of his Origin snubbing to turn in another forceful game.

Tigers: 20 (B Ayshford, M Brown, S Dwyer, B Marshall tries; B Marshall 2/4 conversions)

Panthers: 18 (L Coote, M Iosefa, D Simmons tries; L Walsh 3/3 conversions)

Tags: sport, rugby-league, nrl, australia, nsw, balmain-2041, campbelltown-2560, penrith-2750

First posted May 21, 2011 21:31:00

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