Oates injures leg as Broncos pummelled by Wests Tigers
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The Wests Tigers have ensured the heat will again be turned up on Broncos coach Anthony Seibold with a stunning 48-0 win over a hapless Brisbane outfit at Leichhardt Oval.
Adding to the Broncos' woes was a horrific leg injury suffered by back-rower Corey Oates late in the game. Play was stopped for several minutes while Oates was stretchered from the field and taken straight to hospital.
Seibold told media post-match that Oates had suffered a suspected compound fracture to his femur and had been taken to a Sydney hospital. He is likely to remain there in coming days.
Coming off a much-needed win over the Bulldogs, Seibold’s men arrived in Sydney looking to continue their revival, but instead they left with their tails between their legs.
The writing was on the wall early when Tigers winger David Nofoaluma crossed for his ninth try of the season after some good lead-up work by Harry Grant, Adam Douehi and Chris Lawrence.
Match: Wests Tigers v Broncos
Round 10 -
home Team
Wests Tigers
7th Position
away Team
Broncos
14th Position
Venue: Leichhardt Oval, Sydney
Among a host of stars, veteran Benji Marshall was magnificent, holding up passes, kicking 40-20s, forcing drop-outs, putting teammates into holes.
He even sent a flick pass back inside to David Nofoaluma which led to a maiden NRL try to interchange forward Sam McIntyre in his fourth game.
Not to be outdone his halves partner, Billy Walters toed a Marshall kick on the volley and then chased it to score the Wests Tigers eighth try. That was his first in the NRL as well.
Nofoaluma goes in with the Broncos defence nowhere to be seen
The scoreboard had leapt out to 42-0 and it made you want to know regular halfback Luke Brooks was thinking. He was dropped to the bench and had a front-row view of Marshall unravelling a near-perfect game in the No.7 jumper Brooks used to call his own.
His moment to enter the fray in the 63rd minute went virtually unnoticed as the crowd of 2,633 chanted H-A-R-R-Y! H-A R-R-Y! went up as coach Michael Maguire gave his hard-working No.9 a well-earned rest.
Still, Brooks evaded three tacklers but was pulled down from behind 12 metres out with the line begging.
The Wests Tigers roared out of their cages scoring four tries in 15 minutes to jump to 20-0, despite showers constantly drifting across the ground. It was 26-0 at the break and that flurry of early points set up the win and exposed some paper thin Broncos defence on both edges and through the middle.
The nine-try performance is just what the doctor ordered as the Wests Tigers head into round 11 with competition leaders the Eels waiting at Bankwest Stadium.
Luciano Leilua grabs his double from a dropout
For the Broncos, face a week of soul searching before a daunting assignment against the Storm in Brisbane.
They hadn’t been to Leichhardt since 2003 and after tonight’s spanking they won’t want to come back for another 17 years.
Luciano Leilua scored a first-half double, the second coming when he caught a dropout and embarrassed Xavier Coates and Brodie Croft on a 30-metre surge to the corner.
Grant was impressive early having a hand in his side’s opening try and then scoring next himself, the Wests Tigers were up 12-0 after just 14 minutes.
After five tries in the first half, the Wests Tigers added another four in the second in one of their most complete performances of recent seasons.
