Sydney Roosters dig deep to rebel Brisbane Broncos A Herculean defensive display from the Sydney Roosters laid the foundation for an 8-0 win over Brisbane in Saturday's NRL clash at Allianz Stadium. IF defence truly does win NRL titles, the Sydney Roosters may have a genuine chance this season. Against Brisbane at Allianz Stadium last night, the Roosters produced a defensive display of premiership pedigree. Early in the second half, they were leading 6-0 but penned on their line. Wave after wave of Brisbane player attempted to breach the fortress the Roosters had set up in front of them. At one point, the Roosters had made 93 tackles in the second half. The Broncos had made 23. The Roosters had enjoyed 23 per cent of possession. The Broncos, 77 per cent. But the Roosters refused to yield and they got their reward in the form of a vital 8-0 victory. "The effort was outstanding," Roosters coach Trent Robinson said. I thought obviously defensively we worked hard, simply. We knew what was coming at us, we moved forward fast and put some pressure on them when we could. You want to see your principles hold true under pressure and we had a lot of that tonight. That's really pleasing. I thought we pressured them but I think Brisbane will get better too. Captain Anthony Minichiello added: "We have worked hard all pre-season on defence. If you have a good defensive system it goes a long way to being a good team. As for the Broncos, this was a mirror-image of last week. Against the Dragons, Brisbane had no ball but tackled their way to victory. Last night, they were on the receiving end. There were extenuating circumstances - the team's most potent attacking player Justin Hodges was absent through injury. Even so, Brisbane's attack was insipid and predictable. "It wasn't a step backwards in effort," Brisbane coach Anthony Griffin said. I thought it was just a real good tight game of footy. We had our chances and the Roosters were good enough to turn up. I thought we turned up on them all night too. It was one of those games. It was always going to be one of those games - a real slugfest. They got that one try, which was the difference. That one try had an air of controversy about it. Sonny Bill Williams drifted across field and hit James Maloney with a flat pass which could have been ruled forward. Maloney raced through a hole to score the only try of the game. Brisbane captain Sam Thaiday refused to criticise the decision, preferring to single out his teammates for a critical error which dictated the result. "It was a defensive error from us," Thaiday said. If Mitchell Dodds stays square we defend that pass. That's what cost us the game. The game was another step in the right direction for Williams. The dual international played the entire 80 minutes for the second week in succession. By fulltime, he had got through a mountain of work, gone close on several occasions and thrown the pass for game's only try. Asked how he thought Williams had played, Robinson said: "Tough. I think we saw some nice passes and a couple of good off-loads. But he just worked hard on his D - he turned up. It was a really, really strong 80 minutes from him. It's really impressive to see the balance between some nice attacking play and then he will do anything to work hard for the bloke next to him. He doesn't want to let anybody down. He works hard on his individual game but he's really clear on his role within the team as well. SYDNEY ROOSTERS 8 (J Maloney try J Maloney 2 goals) BRISBANE 0 at Allianz Stadium.