Brisbane Broncos 20
Wests Tigers 18
SYDNEY - Brisbane skipper Darren Lockyer once again came up with the goods as the Broncos held off a gallant Wests Tigers to run out 20-18 NRL winners in atrocious conditions at Campbelltown Stadium last night.
Down 18-14 with 17 minutes remaining after former Tiger Ben Te'o and debutant centre Blake Ayshford had traded second half tries, Lockyer grubbered for the in-goal and then dived on a John Morris spill to give the visitors a lead they would never relinquish.
The Tigers pushed hard to get back into the contest but the endeavours weren't helped by the 65th minute sin-binning of skipper Benji Marshall, referee Jared Maxwell losing patience after five straight penalties against the home side.
The Tigers sorely missed skipper and hooker Robbie Farah who was a late withdrawal after failing to satisfy Tigers medical officials that he had recovered from a concussion suffered in last week's dramatic one-point loss to South Sydney, denying him the opportunity to make a late play for NSW selection ahead of Monday's naming of the Blues side for Origin I.
"It would have been nice to get one final chance to prove my worth," Farah said.
"The five-day turnaround didn't give me enough time to get onto the field."
The Tigers struggled early without their skipper as the Broncos ran in two tries via Antonio Winterstein and Karmichael Hunt to take an 8-0 lead after 13 minutes.
But as the conditions worsened, the Tigers warmed to the task and they soon had some ball in the opposition half.
A nice interchange of passes ended with giant Fijian centre Peni Tagive carrying Lockyer over the line to halve the deficit, home town hero John Skandalis - playing his first NRL game in two and a half years - doing little to endear himself to the soaked Campbelltown faithful when he knocked on from the kick-off.
While the Broncos let Skandalis off the hook, Alex Glenn was not so lucky after his fumble with Taniela Tuiaki carrying a pair of defenders over the line to lock it up at 8-all.
Marshall then pounced as Lockyer watched a John Morris grubber roll through the in-goal to give the Tigers the lead, the home side unlucky not to be further ahead at the break with Tim Moltzen denied a four-pointer due to knock-on from a strip in the lead-up.
The match ended in dramatic fashion with referee Maxwell tackled after the siren by a spectator, the fan promptly apprehended and arrested by police.
"It's never happened to me in 15 years of footy, I've blown fulltime and I had my back turned to the gentleman coming out from the crowd and I've gone back to pick up the football and that's when I went down," Maxwell said.
"A bit of a shock but these things happen."
NRL chief operations officer Graham Annesley said the matter would be dealt with firstly by police before any sanction from the NRL.
"He will be charged by police and in all likelihood he will face a life ban from the NRL," Annesley said.
The spectator wasn't the only one upset with the referees performance with Tigers coach Tim Sheens only turning up to the post-match media conference to avoid a fine after taking umbrage at Maxwell's binning of Marshall.
"He's warned both sides and they've given away the four penalties before us and I don't see how we have to cop the blame for that," stand-in skipper Marshall said.
While happy to get the win, Lockyer said the Broncos couldn't afford to keep slackening off after grabbing the early lead.
"Sometimes it happens when you get away to good start you fall into that trap of thinking things are going to come easy," he said.
"It's disappointing, we've done it on plenty of occasions this year where we've just let teams back into the game."
- AAP
