Broncos Fairy tale Victory

As the Brisbane Broncos come off a thrilling victory over last years champions the St. George Dragons there hopes and dreams to send Locky out with a bang. As we all saw in the when fullback Alex Glenn flew through the air to claim the ball his foot smacked right into the cheek of the inspirational skipper Darren Lockyer which resulted in him inserting 3 metal plates in his cheek but returning second - rower Sam Thaiday says ''we won't need Locky if he is'nt cleared to play that just means our young guns will just have to step up to the plate such rookies as Corey Norman and Ben Hunt and more.

Lockyer says ''I will be fine come the Preliminary's and I'll make sure us Brisbane Broncos get a spot in that Grand Finals''.

We know it will be a tough game and 1 team will have to come out a winner I give

best of luck to both teams this Friday at the SFS Stadium at 7:45 pm (local time).

MANU SAMOA

SAMOA (Pool D)

Best World Cup Performance:

Made the world cup Quarter - Finalist in 1991 and 1995.

SAMOAN PEDIGREE:

Samoa were not even invited to play in this years World Cup.

Samoa have featured in since. In 1991 they made the biggest upset in Rugby World Cup history 13-16 and they qualified and made it to the Quarter - Finals. Repeated it in the next two World Cups but had a rough time winning games as they always found themselves in the same pool as England and South Africa in the last two World Cups.

STAR PLAYER:

Alesana Tuilagi:

At a starting weight of 118kg has a build of foward but has the speed of a fullback this Samoan wrecking - ball is a forced to be reckoned with on the field, scoring 17 tries in 27 games and took his team the Tigers to the Premiership Final this season. Since joining the Samoan team in 2002 and has gone on to play 21 tests and nine tries and countinuing.

No More Mr. Nice Guys

West Tigers Big man Gareth Ellis says '' The Tigers must get over the razzle dazzle business and start getting ruthless and hungry since the finals are so close''. The big second - rower since joining the Tigers, he has also been a key figure in the Tigers nine - game winning streak and he has caught heaps of eyes in the league world. Ellis knows that their attacking game can get them so far in these finals situations.

He knows aggression is the best way to guarantee their finals spot, since 05 the Tigers have been bigger, better, faster and stronger than before but after their last years loss to their feared opponents St. George Dragons, Ellis says '' lose the nice guy image, being fancy will probably win us all the fans in the world but wont win us that title that the Tigers have been hungry for since 2005 .

This weeks opponets are fresh off a loss to the on form Brisbane Broncos the New Zealand Warriors but if the Tigers use the Warriors loss to their advantage the Tigers could actually win this match - up.

This time last year the Tigers were facing off against the Sydney Roosters to determind who carrys on but will year be the year of the WEST TIGER??????.