Brisbane's forwards have vowed to keep a hard edge to their play after gutsing out an ugly 19-18 win over Wests Tigers.

After a week of being bagged for their poor effort against Canberra, Brisbane's forwards fired up against a weakened Tigers which also upped the aggression levels after being smashed by Parramatta the previous week.

With both forward packs out to prove a point the game produced a number of heated incidents, including an alleged first half head butt by Tigers hooker Robbie Farah that almost triggered a good old fashion all-in brawl.

Farah and Brisbane hooker Michael Ennis had a running war most of the night but neither hooker wanted to say too much after the game.

Brisbane's forwards got together as a group last Thursday and accepted responsibility for the performance against Canberra which assistant coach Ivan Henjak labelled as "crap".

"There was no fingers pointed by anyone but we had a really good meeting and agreed we all had to stand up and play tough against the Tigers to make life easier for our backs," said young forward Greg Eastwood.

"Our forwards really did that last night.

"We needed to fire up and we did.

"We have to have that tough edge now every week, we know that."

One thing that won't be in Brisbane's game plan in the "mouse trap" play which even caught coach Wayne Bennett by surprise when it was used late in the game - with almost dire consequences.

The mouse trap play involved the dummy half taking off one way without the ball and another playing picking it up and heading off in the other direction.

Unfortunately, Darius Boyd fumbled the ball and turned over possession 20 metres out from Brisbane's try line, handing the Tigers a golden opportunity to snatch a win.

"I think it was Darius's call, I think he got it from Origin," laughed Eastwood.

"Wayne (Bennett) wasn't too happy.

"I think we're going to work on it at training but maybe it's the last time you see it."

Bennett saw the funny side in the move after the game.

"I almost threw myself out the window when they did the mouse trap," said Bennett.

While Brisbane had to grind out the win with out star players, Bennett felt their were plenty of plusses to come out of the performance.

"At least you can see we're going forwards again and not treading water or going backwards which we have been, certainly after last week and the week before that even."

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