Broncos Fall Short In Las Vegas

A rusty Brisbane Broncos have fallen short against the Roosters 20-10 in their historic USA season opener at Allegiant Stadium.

Payne Haas (132 metres) led from the front all night for the Broncos while wingers Jesse Arthars (195 metres and 5 tackle breaks) and Deine Mariner (124 metres and a try) also ate up the metres returning the ball.

Fullback Reece Walsh (183 metres) showed numerous glimpses of his electric play including a cracking try and try assist in front of a Las Vegas crowd of 40,746.

Things got off to a tough start for the Broncos with Brendan Piakura taken from the field after a head knock in the third minute, forcing Pat Carrigan to the backrow and Corey Jensen into the middle.

Roosters centre Joseph Manu picked up an intercept a minute later to score under the posts to give his team a 6-0 lead, before the Chooks edged to an eight-point advantage through a Sam Walker penalty in the 15th minute.

The Broncos kept shooting themselves in the foot with repeated errors but continued to dig deep with strong defensive efforts to repel the Roosters attack time after time.

And that defensive steel was rewarded towards the end of the half with momentum turning back towards Brisbane, as they started to offload the ball and get better field position.

After repeat sets, Walsh eventually skipped to the outside down the right and threaded a lovely grubber back infield into the in-goal for Mariner to use his electric speed to win the race for the ball and touch down for a try in the 35th minute and cut the half-time deficit to four points.

The Roosters pushed further ahead again in the 51st minute when winger Fetalaiga Pauga scored out wide after the Roosters exploited an overlap off a repeat set, with Walker converting for a 14-4 lead.

But the Broncos would not go away and they lit up Allegiant Stadium with a sensational long-range try in the 60th minute, switching the ball back to the left and sending the ball through four sets of hands to put Arthars flying down the wing before passing it back inside to Walsh who raced away to swan-dive under the posts.

Captain Adam Reynolds converted to make it 14-10 and set up a pulsating final 20 minutes but Brisbane could not maintain their intensity and errors snuck back into their game, giving the Roosters too many shots at their line with Victor Radley eventually crossing to seal the result with six minutes to go.