Brigginshaw in the clutch
The Brisbane Broncos played out an absolute shocker against the Wests Tigers in NRLW Round 8.
With just 62% completions, 27 missed tackles, 11 errors, 11 penalties conceded and a girl in the bin for 10 minutes, Brisbane did almost everything to lose this game and were in a position to do just that with eight minutes to play.
The Tigers in comparison completed at 84% and conceded just two penalties in 70 minutes of game time, starving the Broncos of possession and field position. They were in the box seat in the final quarter of the match but had no answer to the guile of Broncos halfback Ali Brigginshaw.
Despite Brisbane’s ill-discipline throughout the match, a cheap try to Destiny Brill in the 62nd minute gave the Broncos a sniff and Brigginshaw turned that half chance into points.
She’s the most experienced playmaker in the NRLW for a reason and with the game on the line, Brigginshaw put herself on the ball and in positions to influence the result.
Working off their own line in the 60th minute – as they were forced to do for much of the game – the Broncos made their own luck when Tazmin Gray broke the line in yardage and raced into the backfield. She tried to link with a player in support but a good read from Tigers fullback Bo Vette-Welsh knocked the pass down, saving a try but giving Brisbane a fresh good-ball set.
Enter Brigginshaw.
Two settlers around the posts gets the set started here as Brianna Clark and Gray compress the defensive line towards the ball.
Brigginshaw gets on the ball on play three with some shape wide on the right edge, but she doesn’t get the look she wanted:
Instead of throwing a pass that wasn’t on, Brigginshaw swivels on a dime and works back towards the middle. Dropping a forward underneath towards the posts, Brigginshaw keeps moving the same way to link with Mele Hufanga on the left edge one play later.
Hufanga gets her line wrong here and produces an underwhelming carry on play four. With just one tackle left in this set, Brigginshaw again stays composed and takes the percentage play by rolling one into the in-goal. That grubber kick draws an error from the Tigers and gives Brisbane another six tackles to work with.
They only needed three.
Hayley Maddick takes the first carry off the scrum before Clark again settles things towards the posts.
Importantly here, Clark drags Kezie Apps into the tackle which strips the Tigers left edge for numbers on the following play.
With a middle forward filling in for Apps as the four-in defender, Wests edge unit is disrupted and they don’t number up correctly.
It’s the half chance Brigginshaw was waiting for and she nails her involvement here.
With a slight change in tempo, Brigginshaw brings her backrower onto the ball which drags in both the centre and wing defenders for the Tigers.
Having created the space out wide, Brigginshaw then fires a bullet out in front of Shenae Ciesiolka, allowing her to take possession outside Jakiya Whitfled and win the race to the corner.
Two good-ball sets, four touches from Brigginshaw and four points for the Brisbane Broncos.
It’s not a one-woman-band at Red Hill this year, but this passage is a timely reminder for the Broncos that if they complete their sets and put themselves in positions to score points, Brigginshaw will produce the goods more often than not.
Getting there has been the challenge for the Broncos this year, though.
After eight rounds played, the Broncos rank dead last in the NRLW for set completion rates. That number alone goes a long way to explaining Brisbane’s position on the ladder right now.
They sit in fourth heading into Round 9 but are arguably better than the third placed Gold Coast Titans, while newcomers the Canberra Raiders are hot on their heels with just points differential seperating the two clubs right now.
That all makes for a few very entertaining match-ups next weekend with the Broncos (4th) facing the Dragons (6th) while the Raiders (5th) take on the Titans (3rd).
Three doesn’t go into two and one of the Broncos, Raiders or Titans will miss out on a finals berth the following week.
The Brisbane Broncos deserve to be in the conversation but have beaten themselves at times this season. An improvement in their discipline could end up the difference leading into the finals.
There’s Always Next Week For…
… the Sydney Roosters
There’s nothing in particular I can point to in Sydney’s NRLW Round 8 loss to the Newcastle Knights.
They ran for 1,471 metres in this one – down from their 1,582m season average but not poor enough to explain a 16 point deficit.
They completed at 68% – again down from their 71.9% season average but by no means dramatically worse.
And they missed just 24 tackles – hardly an improvement from their 25.9 season average.
Despite this, the Chooks barely threatened a confident Knights outfit on Saturday afternoon and will go back to the drawing board this week with an eye towards the grand final, where they will presumably meet Newcastle for the second time this year.
The absence of Mille Boyle and Jess Sergis clearly troubled the Roosters in this one. They missed Boyle’s productivity on both sides of the ball through the middle and struggled to play direct without her.
When they searched on the edges, the power-running of Sergis in both yardage and good-ball was clearly missing as the Roosters failed to punch holes in the Knights defence.
Despite this, Easts managed to stay in the grind with Newcastle for most of the game but came up with some simple and crucial errors in key moments. With eight mistakes between the Roosters back five and halves, the Chooks failed to soak up or build any pressure.
They only need to tidy up those errors – particularly in their own half – to be back somewhere close to their best next weekend.
NRLW Round 8 Shout-Outs
Tamika Upton
In case you needed any further evidence that Tamika Upton is the best female rugby league player in the world…
She was a large part of the reason the Newcastle Knights made such light work of the Sydney Roosters in NRLW Round 8. Upton was involved in three of the Knights four tries in this one and was untouchable at times.
She’s good enough to take the Knights all the way to a premiership.
Apii Nicholls
The Canberra Raiders registered their biggest win of the 2023 NRLW regular season against North Queensland on Sunday afternoon with fullback Apii Nicholls starring again.
She’s one of the form fullbacks in the NRLW right now given her attacking involvements, but it was this tackle on a runaway Krystal Blackwell that stood out for me.
A brilliant kick from Kirra Dibb is made even better when Blackwell wins the race to the bouncing ball. Given her speed from this far out, Blackwell looked certain to score here until Nicholls crunched her with a ball-and-all tackle.
The Raiders are there or thereabouts in the finals race and efforts like this can help them get there.
Mele Hufanga
The Broncos strike centre had a quiet game by her standards in NRLW Round 8. She hasn’t scored in two weeks after racing to the top of the try scorer leaderboard in Round 6, but Mele Hufanga is finding new ways to influence a result.
This is an ominous sign for the rest of the NRLW.
Coming a long way infield to look for some work, Hufanga angles her run in behind the ruck here to split the defence. Showing awesome speed and balance, she breaks into the backfield and very nearly powers into the in-goal.
She still generates a quick play-the-ball though and looks to have gifted Grace Griffin her first try in the NRLW. Only a bobble from the young half spoils the party for Brisbane here.
Hufanga has scored eight tries this year by capitalising on the work of her teammates. For her to be searching for the ball and creating positive involvements for herself though is a sign of Hufanga’s development.
Maddison Bartlett
It wasn’t too long ago that Maddison Bartlett was the leading try scorer in the NRLW with 11 tries from her first 16 games.
That record has dried up slightly with 17 tries across a total 24 NRLW game career, but she reminded us of her finishing qualities in NRLW Round 8.
This was a special effort:
A little shimmy leaves poor Vitalina Naikore stuck in the mud here and creates a race to the corner between Bartlett and Tallulah Tillet. The Cowboys half makes great first contact and appears to have wrapped the ball up, but Bartlett somehow gets the ball beneath her and plants it down before being barrelled into touch.
We’ve got specialist wingers for a reason and Bartlett is just that.