Melbourne Storm edge Brisbane Broncos, Sydney Roosters beat West’s Tigers

Brisbane Broncos winger Jharal Yow Yeh has suffered a shoulder injury in a 34-30 Broncos loss to Melbourne Storm in the NRL trial in Hobart.

The Test star appeared to suffer the injury to his right shoulder early in the match and sat on the sideline heavily iced for the second half after playing out the first.

Yow Yeh's was among several concerns coming out of the match, with Storm lock Ryan Hinchcliffe stretchered off late and Billy Slater appearing to cop a poke in the eye.

Broncos hooker Andrew McCullough received nine stitches to a deep head cut, but played for most of the match.

Late tries to Brisbane from Josh Hoffman and Dane Gagai narrowed the margin after the Storm had taken their stars from the field but man of the moment Cooper Cronk had engineered a lead of 30-12 by the 50th minute.


Cronk bagged a double and set up two more tries for the Storm as he contemplates his future with reportedly three NRL clubs and rugby union chasing his signature.

He grubbered for Gareth Widdop to grab the scraps in the fifth minute and for a brilliant Slater putdown in the ninth and a 12-0 lead to the Storm.

His solo effort in the 27th minute was equally brilliant and he backed up a Slater bust in the 47th minute as the Storm shot out to 24-12.

Partner in crime Slater also bagged two before he left the field 15 minutes into the second half.

Slater was the man the 11,752 strong Hobart crowd had come to watch and he didn't disappoint.

He might have had a third, a trademark chip and chase in the 30th minute, but was denied by a knock-on call despite the ball appearing to come off his legs before he grounded it.

Melbourne led 18-12 at the break but the Broncos had shown plenty of fight to come back from 12-0 down with tries to Alex Glenn in the 16th minute and Ben Te'o in the 22nd.

Sydney Roosters 28 defeated Wests Tigers 24

The Sydney Roosters survived an early Benji Marshall masterclass and a massive change of personnel to score a 28-24 win over Wests Tigers in the Foundation Cup NRL trial at Campbelltown Sports Stadium on Saturday night.

The Tigers cruised to an 18-6 lead in the second quarter but from there were outscored 22-6 on the run into fulltime.

The Roosters scored five tries to four and exposed some deficiencies in the defence of the Tigers, who have been installed as the early NRL favourites.

Tigers winger Beau Ryan stood out in a losing team, scoring a classy hat-trick.
Roosters coach Brian Smith opted against fielding his listed team for the first quarter, instead sending out close to a reserve grade line-up.

Early on in the match, Marshall threatened to take complete control of proceedings.
The mercurial New Zealander set up the Tigers' first three tries, including one for highly touted young fullback James Tedesco inside the first 70 seconds.

Tedesco claimed a pinpoint Marshall bomb and Ryan capitalised on two perfect cut-out passes from the five-eighth.

Marshall was also involved in the build-up to Ryan's third try, passing to Blake Ayshford, who put his winger over.

The Roosters charged back into the game late in the second quarter with tries to Boyd Cordner and Mitchell Pearce to trail by just two at halftime.

Ryan's hat-trick try and Marshall's fourth conversion from as many attempts put the Tigers up 24-16 early in the third quarter.

Converted tries to Mose Masoe and Daniel Mortimer either side of the final quarter break enabled the Roosters to sneak ahead on the scoreboard.

New recruit Mortimer put in a solid shift at five eighth and backed up his try with four goals from five attempts.

Canberra 16 defeated Canterbury-Bankstown 14

A brilliant try to winger Reece Robinson helped Canberra clinch a 16-14 victory over the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in their final rugby league trial in Wagga Wagga on Saturday.

The Raiders held a 12-10 lead at halftime, but after a second half arm-wrestle, seemed to have lost the ascendency when the Bulldogs' Michael Lett scored in the corner with eight minutes to go.

But just moments later, Robinson broke the line almost 40 metres out to gift the Raiders a thrilling victory in their final hit-out before their season opener against Melbourne in Canberra on March 3.

Both sides fielded close to full strength teams, with Bulldogs' skipper Michael Ennis and the man tipped to lead the Raiders in 2012, Terry Campese, the only notable omissions.

Campese was a late withdrawal with a groin strain, but Raiders officials stressed it was a different injury to the one that ruled him out in round 13 last year, just eight minutes into his comeback from a knee reconstruction.

They said the star five-eighth's appearance simply wasn't worth the risk.

In his absence, Sam Williams and Travis Waddell shared playmaking duties for the match.

Canberra scored first through Shaun Berrigan and Jarrod Croker, the latter impressive in his first game of 2012 after suffering a bump to his knee in training earlier in the pre-season.

The Bulldogs quickly reined in the lead following four-pointers to Joel Romelo and Josh Morris, flying down the wing.

The second half - once ground staff was able to remove a throng of local Wagga kids from the field - proved to be a more gritty battle.

Raiders coach David Furner repeated to his squad during the warm-up about making defence a priority for the trial, and said he was pleased with the outcome.

The Raiders managed to shut down several Bulldogs attacking plays in the second half.

"We were a bit sloppy in certain areas, but we talked about defence and that was pretty solid," he said.

"Both sides were very fatigued, but it was just about grinding out the sets, getting down the end and I think they did that."

He said Campese is expected to be right for the Raiders' season-opener against Melbourne on March 3, but will be checked out by the physios during the week.

Des Hasler was not disappointed with the final scoreline and said the Bulldogs had battled hard from an early 12-0 deficit.

"We got back pretty quickly, so from a fighting aspect, they did well," he said.

He said Ennis was a near certain starter for their round one match against Penrith in a fortnight.

Warriors 68 defeated Sunshine Coast 10

The wounded Warriors cruised to a big NRL trial win over Sunshine Coast in Whangarei, but more importantly last year's grand finalists survived without adding to their pre-season injury toll.

The New Zealanders have been hit hard with early injuries, particularly among the forwards, with Micheal Luck, Jacob Lillyman and Sam Rapira leading the list of high profile players in the casualty ward.

However, new coach Brian McClennan finally received some good news in Saturday night's 68-10 win over the Queensland Cup team, and was relieved to watch veteran centre Jerome Ropati make a safe return to the side after a knee injury kept him out for the entirety of last year.

"We came through the game with flying colours, so that's a big positive for us. Obviously the other big one was Jerome Ropati, after not having played for close to 10 months, to come back and do some good work was fantastic," he said.

Ropati was strong in defence and also showed flair with the ball, setting up an early try before capping off his comeback with a four-pointer of his own thanks to a brilliant second half run by rising star Konrad Hurrell.

The young outside back Hurrell shrugged off four defenders before offloading to Ropati, and McClennan, who took over as coach from Ivan Cleary in the off-season, said the 20-year-old has it all in front of him this season.

"He's a very talented young man ... and he's making every post a winner and where does it stop? Who knows?," he said.

McClennan was also thrilled his former English Super League side, the Leeds Rhinos beat Manly in the World Club Challenge.

However he said the Warriors first round clash with the Sea Eagles at Eden Park on March 4 would be a completely different story entirely.

"I was telling anyone who would listen to put plenty on Leeds to win ... Manly looked a bit underdone and in hindsight they might have travelled earlier, but that result has no bearing on our match," he said.

"We know that when they come to Eden Park they'll come as the reigning premiers and the benchmark team of the competition."

The Warriors started their final pre-season game slowly and led 26-6 at the break.

They upped the tempo in the second half scoring eight of their 13 tries, as they exploited some big gaps in the defensive line of their tiring Sunshine Coast opponents.

With Lillyman and Rapira missing for the start of the season, props Ben Matulino and Russell Packer stepped up and had great games in their place.

McClennan confirmed youngster Sione Lousi is likely to be the third prop in the rotation for the start of the season.