The Brisbane Broncos take on Hull Kingston Rovers this morning in the World Cup Challenge as the NRL powerhouse look to kick start their 2026 campaign with a bang.
Reece Walsh’s blistering finals campaign helped the Broncos break their 19-year premiership drought last season, and the Broncos are hot favourites to go back-to-back this years.
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Brisbane take on Hull KR at MKM Stadium in near freezing conditions in northern England in a battle between the NRL and Super League champions.
8.09am – Broncos fight back in tryscoring blitz
The Broncos have scored three tries in a five-minute second half blitz to get back in the game.
Ben Talty made a dashing line break to set up Pat Carrigan, who was rewarded for his support play with a try.
Deine Mariner then produced a beautiful show-and-go down the right sideline to go 60 metres to score.
The Broncos kept on pressing and Reece Walsh threw a nice ball to put Gehamat Shibasaki put through a hole to make it 30-20 with 15 minutes to go.
7.55am – Broncos embarrassed, Hull blitz continues
The second half is underway and it’s a more even contest but the Broncos can’t quite crack Hull’s defence.
Gehamat Shibasaki came within centimetres of scoring a try, only for Hull to score when Josiah Karapani dropped a high kick and Oliver Gildart went over to score.
Hull KR scored again in the 55th minute when Peta Hiku snaffled a lovely little grubber kick by Tyrone May.
The Super League champions are yet to miss a conversion too — they can do no wrong.
“Hull KR on the charge towards victory and thrashing the NRL champions,” Fox League caller Andrew Voss said.
7.15am – Broncos on the board
The Broncos are on the board after Gehamat Shibasaki scored in the 28th minute.
A deft Reece Walsh crossfield kick found Josiah Karapani, who flicked the ball back over his head to Shibasaki, who scored an easy try.
Adam Reynolds missed the conversion so the score remains 18-4 at halftime.
Ezra Mam came close to scoring moments later, but replays showed he didn’t get the ball to ground.
Reece Walsh made a blistering line break late in the first half, but Jordan Riki got in the way of his teammate, forcing Walsh to rush a kick and it flew way past the in-goal.
Yvonne Samspon said on Fox League: “The Broncos must be sitting in the sheds at halftime thinking what’s happened here. ”They must be like, ‘Hang on, this is not where we thought we’d kick off our here.”
6.58am – Hull score again, Broncos getting destroyed
Oh my goodness. Hull have scored another try to take a 18-0 lead after 21 minutes.
A kick was batted back by Hull and a second grubber kick by Jez Litton was perfectly weighted for a flying Joe Burgess, who scored in the corner.
“Brisbane being picked apart by the locals,” Andrew Voss said in commentary.
6.47am – Hull score twice, Broncos stunned
We didn’t see that coming. Hull have scored two early tries to take a 12-0 lead over the Broncos.
Tom Amone dived on Tyrone May’s ugly grubber to score first, before frontrower Eliot Minchella bulldozed over, just getting the ball on the tryline.
“It was all a little soft to be honest,” Fox League caller Andrew Voss said on Kayo Sports.
The second try came after a Broncos error when Reece Walsh dropped a high kick, giving the ball back to Hull.
Greg Alexander said in commentary: “The Hull KR team have been gifted some position at their end of the field and they’ve made the most of it. Can you believe it?”
The Broncos have some work to do here.
6.37am – Bronco off after 90 seconds, Walsh fires up
Corey Jensen has come from the field just 90 seconds into the game after appearing to be concussed in a fairly innocuous tackle.
Jensen lay on the turf as a set continued and he looked groggy before a trainer helped from the field.
Reece Walsh fired up when Broncos winger Deine Mariner copped a dirty elbow from a Hull player — Walsh flew in and pushed the player and Brisbane got a penalty.
Greg Alexander said: “Bit of an elbow there and Reece Walsh didn’t like that. An elbow to the head of Deine Mariner.”
6.15am – Hunt moved to the bench
Broncos coach Michael Maguire has demoted Ben Hunt to the bench for the game, with Ezra Mam elevated to the No. 6 jersey in the halves alongside Adam Reynolds.
“Having someone like Hunty to come off the bench, it’s pretty handy for us,” Maguire said.
“Hunty can go into the halves if need be, Hunty can go into the middle of the park if he has to. We’ll let the game play out and see where they land.”
The Broncos have made three changes to the side that defeated the Melbourne Storm in the grand final.
Kobe Hetherington has joined Manly and Tyson Smoothy headed to Super League side Wakefield Trinity, while Brendan Piakura is sidelined after undergoing surgery to repair a meniscus tear last month.
Curse hanging over NRL sides
The Broncos are aiming to be the first NRL side to win the World Cup Challenge since the Roosters in 2020 — the Panthers lost to St Helens and Wigan in 2023 and 2024.
The Broncos lost the 2001 and 2007 World Cup Challenge games to St Helens.
“The Brisbane Broncos have played in a lot of these games but I found it weird they haven’t had success for a number of years,” Fox League’s Cooper Cronk said on Kayo Sports.
All eyes are on Reece Walsh and Payne Haas — Cronk said Walsh will be a “rock star” in England if he can replicate his performance from last year’s Ashes.
You can watch the World Club Challenge game live on Kayo Sports.
Brisbane Broncos team list
1. Reece Walsh
2. Josiah Karapani
3. Gehamat Shibasaki
4. Kotoni Staggs
5. Deine Marine
6. Ezra Mam
7. Adam Reynolds
8. Corey Jensen
9. Corey Paix
10. Payne Haas
11. Jack Gosiewski
12. Jordan Riki
13. Pat Carrigan
Bench: Ben Hunt, Xavier Willison, Ben Talty, Alix Tawha
Originally published as Broncos vs Hull World Cup Challenge live: ‘Soft’ NRL premiers embarrassed in ‘thrashing’