SOUTH Sydney coach Wayne Bennett called it the worst injury toll of his career but winners Brisbane also suffered a damaging casualty in their Suncorp Stadium cakewalk.
Prop Xavier Willison suffered a broken arm as the Broncos ran in 10 tries and Adam Reynolds booted 10 from 10 in a 60-14 pasting.
“We’ll lose X for a period of time now – he’s definitely broken his arm so we have to work out what that’s going to entail,” said Brisbane coach Michael Maguire.
“That could be a six-weeker.
“Watching X grow has been enjoyable for all of us but it’s one of those things. It’s the game. We’ve got someone like Ben Talty coming up and we get (Payne Haas) back.
“The next man, as they say, comes up. We’ll get X-y back at the business end.”
Staring down the first wooden spoon of his career, Bennett said: “I was waiting for that to happen, to be honest with you.
“I just counted in our changerooms and our spine has had 30 NRL games between them. We’ve been up for a long time … 13 first graders not playing tonight.
“Our 18th man pulled out.
“We just hit the wall.
“I think we’ve achieved a lot already, getting you players NRL time that they normally wouldn’t get.”