LONDON BRONCOS 24 BRADFORD BULLS 34
HUW RICHARDS, Cherry Red Records Stadium, Saturday

AS LONDON wait on the imponderables of next season’s league status and investment from Australia, their coach Mike Eccles, whose herculean efforts have contributed hugely to the club’s survival, was able to confirm that his immediate future is secure.

“At worst we can continue in the same vein as now,” he said after a performance that showed both the potential at the club and the limitations under which it is labouring.

For the third home match running, all against playoff contenders, they showed themselves capable of competing with the best in the Championship, but fell just short.

“It was very similar to those games. Their quality and experience told in the end, with their interchange making a big difference”, said Eccles.

Darren Lockyer and his consortium of potential investors will return home to Australia on Wednesday after having seen much to encourage them in London’s final home game. It was the sort of day, warm and bright but not oppressive, for which summer rugby was intended, with a lively atmosphere aided by a sizeable Bradford contingent.

And for 35 minutes London dominated so completely that a 12-0 lead from Luke Polselli’s swerving eighth-minute run and Brandon Webster-Mansfield’s smart dummy-half sneak in the 22nd minute, plus Jack Smith’s conversions, seemed a poor reward, particularly once replacements Chris Hill and Mitchel Souter injected some dynamism into the Bulls.

And so it proved as the game turned on its head on either side of the break. If there was any compensation for London, it is that, as they seek to make the case for the capital’s wider importance to the game, the chief agents of their destruction were former Broncos.

Guy Armitage was first to Tom Holmes’s astute kick through on an early tackle three minutes before the break. Luke Hooley added the conversion.

London kicked the restart dead and within another minute Enfield-born Joe Keyes ran a subtle line to cross, completing 500 points for Bulls. Hooley missed the conversion, but with the gap down to two at the break, the force was with Bradford.

Keyes struck again after the break, first firing Bradford into an attacking position with a 40/20 kick, then opening a huge gap in the London cover with a subtle shuffle and strolling to the line.

Hooley converted, and was on the mark again four minutes later after Waqa Blake squeezed a touchdown amid a gang of defenders, giving Bradford a 10-point lead.

When Webster-Mansfield earned a yellow card by giving voice to London’s growing frustration, and Armitage squeezed through some demoralised tackling to add a further Bulls score on 66 minutes, a massacre seemed possible.

But London, to their credit, ended brightly with Liam Tindall’s 13th and 14th tries of the season, both converted from the touchline by Smith, either side of Bradford’s final score – Hooley taking Armitage’s pass to cross, then adding his fifth conversion out of six.

Bradford maintained their play-off push, although what relevance they will have remains to be seen, as does whether this fixture is repeated next season, and in which competition.

GAMESTAR: Joe Keyes came back to London to haunt the Broncos.

GAMEBREAKER: Bradford’s barrage of four tries in 14 minutes either side of half-time

MATCHFACTS
BRONCOS
1 Alex Walker
33 Jack Smith
3 Ethan Natoli
4 Brandon Webster-Mansfield
5 Liam Tindall
6 Luke Polselli
7 Connor O‘Beirne
10 Lewis Bienek
9 Curtis Davies
14 Kobe Rugless
11 Will Lovell
12 Sadiq Adebiyi
13 Marcus Stock
Subs (all used)
17 Jenson Monk
18 Ben Hursey-Hord
30 Ted Davidson
34 Tommy Porter

Tries: Polselli (8), Webster-Mansfield (25), Tindall (69, 78)
Goals: Smith 4/4
Sin-bin: Webster-Mansfield (66) – dissent

BULLS
26 Luke Hooley
37 Jayden Okunbor
3 Waqa Blake
5 Guy Armitage
23 Jorge Taufua
7 Joe Keyes
1 Tom Holmes
8 Michael Lawrence
9 Jordan Lilley
15 Logan Bayliss-Brow
11 Zac Fulton
25 Bayley Liu
20 Ronan Michael
Subs (all used)
10 Ebon Scurr
14 Mitch Souter
34 Chris Hill
35 Zane Musgrove

Tries: Armitage (37, 66) Keyes (39, 47), Blake (51) Hooley (73)
Goals: Hooley 5/6

SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 12-0, 12-6, 12-10: 12-16, 12-22, 12-28, 18-28, 18-34, 24-34

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Broncos: Liam Tindall; Bulls: Joe Keyes

Penalty count: 5-7
Half-time: 12-10
Referee: Marcus Griffiths