After scraping home against Souths for the second time this season, Brothers extended their lead at the top of the Hospital Cup ladder to two wins.

But new centre Grason Makara said he expected more teams to challenge last year’s defending premiers in the remaining rounds of the regular season and an even tougher challenge come finals time.

“It was another really tough match. Souths are probably the best side we’ve played this year and we had a plan to try and disrupt them but couldn’t really do it,” Makara told Rugby News.

“They are such a tough, passionate footy team and kept fighting for the entire 80 minutes but luckily, we were able to keep our composure and come away with the victory.”

Brothers led Souths 10-5 after 30 minutes when Souths centre Alofa Alofa had a brainsnap and was red carded after throwing a punch.