Broncos' top-four charge is on as Ezra Mam leads comeback

7NEWS

4 days ago

Ezra Mam has engineered a Brisbane comeback for the ages, keeping the Broncos in the race for the NRL top four with a 22-18 win over Canterbury.
On a Friday night when the Bulldogs' halves picture grew even murkier, Brisbane scored four tries in the final 20 minutes to win the game after trailing 18-0.
Booed with every touch of the ball at Accor Stadium, Mam was at the centre of it all as he laid on three perfect passes late to mask over a poor Brisbane first half.
The result kept the Broncos within two wins of the top four and the injury-stricken Warriors, and marked their second victory over Canterbury this year.
Down on confidence and strike a month ago, the Broncos have now won four straight after also overhauling a 16-point deficit against Cronulla last month.
But for 60 minutes on Friday, this looked like it would be anything but a good night for a Broncos side fielding two debutants.
Selwyn Cobbo had a nightmare first half at fullback, while halfback Adam Reynolds sent two kicks out on the full and had another charged down.
Canterbury never looked at their absolute best either, with Lachlan Galvin and Toby Sexton in the halves, and Matt Burton shifted to centre.
But at 18-0 after 60 minutes and with Canterbury on the attack, it looked as if the Bulldogs had done enough to move back, momentarily, to the top of the ladder.
Enter Mam.
The five-eighth breathed life back into the Broncos when he made use of some broken play, shrugged off two defenders and sent Josiah Karapani over.
Five minutes later he again created havoc on the left, laying on a beautiful cut-out ball to put centre Delouise Hoeter between two defenders and make it 18-10.
Billy Walters also starred after doing likewise against Cronulla a fortnight ago, scoring a crucial try when he deceived Connor Tracey out of dummy-half.
Then it was Mam again who produced the match-winner, juggling a ball before this time going short to second-rower Brendan Piakura to put him across.
Mam has been the most controversial figure in rugby league this year after his nine-match ban for crashing a car while driving unlicensed and with drugs in his system.
But after being Queensland's 18th man for State of Origin II, he was the difference on Friday night.
'The way Reyno (Reynolds) and Ezra are coming together, they are starting to grow together a bit,' coach Michael Maguire said.
'Ezra took the game on. I saw Reyno talk to him at halftime about what they needed to do, and he went out there and did it.''
Cobbo also had two big plays late in his first NRL game in five weeks, after a nightmare first half when the Dolphins-bound star failed to clean up two kicks in the lead-up to Bulldogs tries.
Filling in at fullback, he and Deine Mariner first let Burton chase through on his own kick and score.
Another then came when a Galvin bomb was allowed to bounce, and Viliame Kikau strolled over.
For Canterbury, the loss left more questions than answers about their halves after Burton was shifted to the centres with Stephen Crichton and Jacob Kiraz in NSW camp.
Galvin and Sexton played on both sides of the ruck, but the Bulldogs were constantly guilty of pushing too many passes and searching for points.
Several balls also went down on Galvin's left edge, as he and Burton struggled to find cohesiveness down that side.
'We were trying to land knockout punches when we got some good ball,' coach Cameron Ciraldo said.
'The Broncos were defending well, and I think we just got frustrated and handed the ball over way too cheaply.
'We were trying to force it too much.'