Rugby League: Warriors beat Broncos 26-16

The New Zealand Warriors today broke another barrier with a 26-16 victory over the Brisbane Broncos in the National Rugby League.

The result at a sunny ANZ Stadium in Brisbane marked the first time the Warriors had beaten the five-time premiership winners on their home patch.

It comes only a year after the Auckland-based club recorded their first win over the Broncos at Ericsson Stadium.

Coach Daniel Anderson has overseen both successes and he said there was a mix of emotions after a match that lifted his side back up to second on the NRL table behind the Bulldogs.

"There's a little bit of relief and a lot of joy," he said.

"For the 10 minutes after halftime, the Broncos looked really strong and we looked like we were tiring, but once again the players dug in and we showed our ability to score points."

Ironically, it was the Warriors' Queensland contingent of two-try hero Brent Webb, State of Origin hooker P J Marsh and prop Mark Tookey who played prominent roles in the win.

To be fair to the Broncos, they had nine players backing up from the State of Origin decider four days ago.

Coach Wayne Bennett chose to start three of them - skipper Gorden Tallis, prop Petero Civoniceva and five-eighth Shaun Berrigan - on the bench.

But the victory still gave another lift to the Warriors' morale, only weeks after they recorded another milestone with their first win in Newcastle.

They also remain unbeaten in Australia this year after six visits across the Tasman.

After an error-ridden first half that ended 6-6, the match opened out in the second spell.

The Warriors withstood an initial Broncos onslaught to dominate the first 40 minutes.

The visitors had the ball only three times in the first seven minutes and each time coughed it up.

But the tide turned soon after as the Warriors began to monopolise possession, helped by a favourable penalty count.

They opened the scoring midway through the first half, when a Stacey Jones grubber was not cleaned up and replacement forward Justin Morgan, another Queenslander, grabbed the loose ball to go over.

The Warriors continued to have the upper hand, but were unable to break a staunch defence, while the Broncos had their chances, but also came up with costly mistakes.

Brisbane finally got on the board seven minutes before the break when winger Lote Tuqiri fought through four tackles to score the first of his two tries.

Shortly after the interval, the Broncos hit the front with second rower Carl Webb going over, but the Warriors then produced three impressive strikes to subdue the 24,907 crowd.

Brent Webb finished off a concerted attack, before a length-of-the-field movement ended in winger Henry Fa'afili going over in the corner.

Brent Webb's second touchdown, from a kick ahead and regather, took the score to 22-12 and the Warriors looked safe.

But with eight minutes to go, an equally impressive kick and chase from Tuqiri saw the winger close the gap to six points.

But centre Clinton Toopi's try in the dying moments sealed the win.

Bennett gave credit to the Warriors, but said fatigue had been a factor in his team's performance.

"They played good, the Warriors - they started not so good, but they played good," he said.

"We did some great things ourselves, but we put too much pressure on ourselves and we just didn't have the gas."

Bennett said the Broncos had done the same thing after each of the three Origin matches this season.

"We've had our chances and at the end of the day made silly errors, uncharacteristic errors," he said.

"That's what fatigue does. You're looking for the softer option."

- NZPA