Brisbane City have shortened as NRC competition favorites after an impressive away bonus point victory over the Melbourne Rising.

Last year’s premiers trailed 16-5 midway through the first half, but had too much class in the second half earning a 45-21 victory and the Horan-Little Shield.

“It wasn’t necessarily a pretty win, but sometimes you’ve got to win ugly,” Brisbane City coach Nick Stiles said.

“The conditions weren’t great and we were down at half time, so to see our guys dig themselves out of that through sheer grit was outstanding. Melbourne are a strong team and the conditions down here probably favoured them, but we were very direct and improved in the contact area as the game went on,” he added.

The loss is Melbourne’s first regular season defeat in franchise history and places a question mark over the Rising’s minor premiership defense.

Despite that, Zane Hilton was able to draw a number of positives from the clash.

“I thought our opening thirty minutes was fantastic, but unfortunately we weren’t able to sustain that and Brisbane City are one of the competition’s elite teams; they took advantage of that,” he said.

“In a real positive, we had six players make their Melbourne Rising debuts today and not a single one of them looked out of place at this level; they’ll be better for the opportunity.”

After claiming the Horan-Little Shield from last year’s minor premiers, Brisbane City will put the title up for challenge against QLD Country in Toowoomba next week.

Having already defeated two of the competition heavyweights, City look well and truly on track to challenge for a second straight NRC title.

“It’s great to leave here with a bonus point and our second win for the season and to claim the Horan-Little Shield just adds to it,” Stiles said.

“We’ll enjoy this win but will need to turn our focus quickly to next weekend’s local derby against Queensland Country in Toowoomba – they’ll be absolutely pumped for that match and we don’t want to get ambushed.”