Carrigan Breaks Duck as Broncos Bash Roosters

Pat Carrigan has broken the longest try drought in the NRL as the Brisbane Broncos turned on a 32-10 win over the Roosters at The Gabba to consolidate their spot in the top two.

Carrigan provided a huge highlight for the night with his first try in his 78th first grade game while also racking up 115 running metres, five tackle breaks, three offloads and 26 tackles for a Brisbane side proudly playing in the club’s City Jersey.

Carrigan was ably abetted by Payne Haas with 163 running metres, Herbie Farnworth with eight tackle busts and a try, and Billy Walters who was great in attack and defence all night.

Farnworth crossed for his 12th try of the season to open the scoring for the Broncos in the 4th minute when he showed determination to scramble across the line on the end of some good ball movement to the left. Reynolds converted for a 6-0 lead.

Brisbane were then forced to absorb repeat Roosters attacking sets and turned away the danger with some staunch defence before working their way up field and extending their lead in the next set.

Reece Walsh produced an audacious cross kick from the right towards the uprights with the ball bouncing up for Ezra Mam to dive and catch mid-air for a try under the posts. Reynolds converted to make it 12-0 after 16 minutes.

The lead was extended further when Reynolds knocked over a penalty in the 25th minute after Haas copped a high shot from Jared Waerea-Hargreaves right in front of the posts.

The Broncos were playing with confidence and the crowd were in raptures on the 34th minute mark when Carrigan rumbled across for his maiden try in his 78th NRL game much to the delight of his teammates who mobbed him with a group pile-on.

Reynolds knocked over the conversion for a 20-0 lead which they carried into halftime.

The Broncos ground out the start of the second stanza and looked to have gone further ahead when Kotoni Staggs soared high to take a Mam cross-kick and touch down in the 53rd minute – only for the officials to call him offside.

Tyson Smoothy was then denied a try of his own when the referee blocked his path to the line, knocking him over as he was about to score under the posts with 20 minutes to play.

Billy Smith scored for the Roosters off a kick rebound out wide on the left but the Broncos struck back straight away when Staggs collected an errant pass from Brandon Smith from the restart and charged away to score.

Reynolds kicked the conversion to make it five-from-five for the night before Daniel Tupou scored from another kick to make it 26-10 but the Broncos had the final word when Mam picked up another loose ball and raced 80 metres to score.