The Sydney Roosters have claimed top spot on the NRL ladder with a gutsy 12-10 win over Brisbane but they have paid a massive toll with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves's season over.
Waerea-Hargreaves has been ruled out with an ACL tear and in another big blow to their NRL title aspirations, they are expected to be without halfback Mitchell Pearce for the next several weeks due to a hamstring strain.
Both were injured in the opening 20 minutes on Saturday night, but Trent Robinson's side managed to grind out a brave win that saw them jump the Broncos to be within touching distance of their third straight minor premiership.
Waerea-Hargreaves was taken off in the 12th minute when his knee buckled under him in a tackle and soon after their problems were compounded when Pearce was assisted from the field.
The Roosters showed no signs of fatigue in the dying stages, even when they were reduced to a one-man bench late in the game, and they didn't miss a beat with youngster Jackson Hastings standing in for Pearce.
Robinson said he would be asking his side to take a "no excuses" attitude into the rest of the year and refused to believe it spelled the end of their premiership hopes.
"We've just got to move on," Robinson said.
"There's no excuses. No one makes excuses. No one looks back in years gone past and says `someone was out'. You've just got to move on and prepare for Manly next week."
Despite losing two of their key men, the Tricolours dominated the opening half but were unlucky to only lead 8-0 at the break.
They couldn't convert their pressure into points after they bombed it four times either when they were over the stripe or with the line open.
The 19,137-strong crowd made their feelings known when Blake Ferguson was controversially denied by the video referee when it was ruled Brendan Elliot got a fingertip to it fielding a James Maloney bomb.
Robinson also disagreed with a forward-pass call when Aidan Guerra went over in the first half.
However they finally cracked the Brisbane line in the 30th minute when they put it through the hands to cross through Elliot.
The Broncos sparked the game to life five minutes after the break when Ben Hunt and Justin Hodges found the Roosters short and sent Jordan Kahu over.
A Corey Oates try in the 61st got the Broncos back to within two and the Roosters bench was reduced to two for the final 12 minutes when Kane Evans was taken from the field for a concussion test.
While the Broncos were disciplined and took their chances when they came, they were badly outgunned by the Roosters forwards - losing the yardage battle 1773 metres to 1303.
However coach Wayne Bennett said the alarm bells weren't ringing for his team.
"It was typical finals-type football - (possession) is going to run for you and it's going to run against you. You've just got to be brave and hang in there and that's what we did," Bennett said.
"You know it's going to turn and you want to be in the contest when it turns and we were.
"We're very buoyant by the fact of what we've done."
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