It was not the manner in which the Roosters built a premiership campaign in 2013 but for one night only in Brisbane coach Trent Robinson was happy to see individual brilliance come to the fore to rescue two competition points in the dying stages.
Coming off a 52-point hammering of the Eels and with the Broncos still trying to find their way in attack, the Roosters were forced to come up with something out of the ordinary after Ben Hunt had engineered a 26-18 Brisbane lead with just five minutes remaining.
After Hunt had laid on a try for Jack Reed and then scored a second of his own, the Roosters regathered a short kick-off and then proceeded to post tries to Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Boyd Cordner in the space of three minutes to snatch victory.
With just 21 completions from 31 sets and 30 missed tackles it was not the type of performance that coach Robinson will use as a template for future victories but it again emphasised how difficult the Roosters are to stop when they do click into gear.
"It's great to get two points, never complain about getting two points, but that wasn't the footy that a coach is happy with," Robinson said. "I said to the guys that I thought we won on talent and not hard work and that's not what you want to see.
"Coming to Brisbane and playing a team that has won two in a row, it's hard to come up here and win so it's a credit to the boys, they played some really good footy to win. As soon as we applied some pressure we scored but that's not the 'd' we expect from our team, that's not good enough."
Vindicating their two previous wins over the Bulldogs and Cowboys, the Broncos surged to the lead late in the game on the back of Ben Hunt's best performance as an NRL No.7 but in an ominous sign to opposition teams hoping the Roosters can't defy recent history by winning consecutive premierships, when they needed points, they came in a hurry.
"We spoke about it behind the goal-line," captain Anthony Minichiello said of their Houdini-like escape act. "We believe in our structure and we know it works so all we wanted to do was get the ball back and put some pressure on and keep the ball in play. We did that in the last six or so minutes and come away with two tries."
Added Robinson: "I've said a couple of times, with this team you know anything's possible. There was a lot of disappointment with how we defended some of those plays, especially on last tackle in the second half, but if we get the ball and we get some possession, we know we've got the system to come up with some points.
"As soon as we got that short kick-off we knew we were in with a chance and then Roger, out the back, nice try, and then game on then.
"There was some great footy, some really impressive footy from both teams tonight but I think both 'Hook' (Broncos coach Anthony Griffin) and myself will be disappointed... That's just way too many points for an NRL team to concede."
