Rugby league\u2019s comeback kings announced their abdication after Brisbane\u2019s latest Houdini act fell short in an epic World Club Challenge in Hull.<\/p>\n
Relegated a decade ago, Willie Peters\u2019 Hull KR led the MKM Stadium showpiece before a sold-out 24,600 crowd by 30-4 with 21 minutes left and it was party time in the stands – until the Broncos hoisted the wet sail that took them through three finals series comebacks to a premiership in 2025.<\/p>\n
Twenty unanswered points had East Hull holding its collective breath, but when the last maroon and gold raid failed, it was party time again, with the Robins triumphing 30-24 – and a signal to Broncos coach Michael Maguire and his players that it was time to end their penchant for Great Escapes once and for all.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, If you put yourself in that position over and over, at some stage it\u2019s gonna hurt you,\u201d the coach said. \u201cAs much as we came back at the end there, you just can\u2019t keep doing that.<\/p>\n
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Longest 20 minutes of his life<\/p>\n
\u201cWe probably did that a bit at the back end of the (2025) season. We\u2019ve got to work hard at the start of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Captain Adam Reynolds reckoned, \u201cthere\u2019s no point waiting 60 minutes or until halftime to start playing some footy\u201d, and winger Deine Mariner concurred, saying: \u201cWe\u2019re trying to change that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt worked for us at the back end of the season last year but we want to get our start right so we can hold our lead. That\u2019s the type of footy we\u2019re trying to learn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t always rely on doing the comeback and rely on magic to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maguire wouldn\u2019t even say if he felt the Broncos were capable of snatching the game late, responding simply: \u201cWe didn\u2019t. It\u2019s basically showed we didn\u2019t have the time.<\/p>\n
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They’ve done it!<\/p>\n
“You can have the momentum but if you\u2019re going to \u2026do the hard work early in a game, you don\u2019t put yourself in that position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite having won seven premierships, Brisbane have only managed to lift the world title twice. They\u2019ve failed in the WCC three times as well as dropping a World Club Series match against Warrington in 2017.<\/p>\n
With three consecutive WCCs going to Super League sides, it\u2019s becoming a hoodoo to compare with the early years of Origin.<\/p>\n
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It doesn’t get much bigger than this<\/p>\n
Things started poorly for the visitors when they lost prop Corey Jensen to concussion in the opening minute after a collision with Sauaso Sue.<\/p>\n
Mistakes at the back dogged Brisbane in the first half, with Katoni Staggs\u2019 fumble putting Tyrone May in position to pilot a kick – which looked like it might have hit the ground before his foot – for Tom Amone on debut to scored after five minutes.<\/p>\n
It was Reece Walsh\u2019s turn to put one down before man of the match Jez Litten sent captain Elliot Minchella hurtling over next to the posts in the 12th minute and then the colourful Joe Burgess trailed Litten\u2019s kick into the in-goal a quarter way through the match, this festive gathering began to believe.<\/p>\n
Josiah Karapini\u2019s aerial man\u0153uvre to give Gehamat Shibasaki his 28th-minute score after fullback Walsh\u2019s cross field kick was otherworldly and at 18-4 Peters told a TV interviewer as the players returned to the field for the second half that he was wary of Brisbane\u2019s love of performing miracles.<\/p>\n
Initially, his fears seemed groundless. Mikey Lewis\u2019 bomb was gathered in by winger Burgess, who found Rhyse Martin who in turn put centre Oliver Gildart over nine minutes into the second half, then centre Peta Hiku capitalised on May\u2019s kick for that gargantuan 26 point lead.<\/p>\n
Then, however, the Broncos tried their luck once more at doing the impossible, with consecutive tries captain Patrick Carrigan (60th minute), Mariner (62), Shibasaki (65) and Staggs (76).<\/p>\n
At one stage the Robins were awarded a reliving penalty only for Lewis to fail to find touch.<\/p>\n
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James Batchelor and Peta Hiku said a few times ‘just take three deep breaths’ behind the sticks. It ended up being about 12 deep breaths, they scored that many quick tries.<\/p>\n
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That awful feeling in the pit of nine out of 10 stomachs at the MKM only abated with 20 or so seconds on the clock. Minchella described his team\u2019s second half performances as being, \u201cas ugly as me\u201d.<\/p>\n
Rovers head to Vegas without goal kicking fullback Arthur Mourgue (pectoral muscle) and back rower Dean Hadley, who is thought to have played the final quarter with a fractured eye socket.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, it was an eye-opening experience for many in the Broncos squad despite the defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust being able to stand out there and sing the national anthem – that\u2019s dreams I had as a young fella,\u201d said forward Ben Talty.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby league\u2019s comeback kings announced their abdication after Brisbane\u2019s latest Houdini act fell short in an epic World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-491559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}