Dixon admits Broncos move was ‘hard to make’

   17/12/2018

London Broncos winger Kieran Dixon admitted that returning to the capital city outfit was a tough decision, as he dropped down to the Championship for the first time in his career.

The 26-year-old left Hull Kingston Rovers at the end of the 2016 season when they were relegated from Super League, although he did not feature in the Million Pound Game, to return to his first club London Broncos.

That being the first time he had played outside of Super League, bar a brief loan-spell with Hemel Stags, and the prospect was initially daunting. But Dixon struck a chord once more in London, helping Danny Ward’s side back to the top flight with 27 tries in 29 games in all competitions last season, as they won the Million Pound Game over heavily favoured Toronto Wolfpack.

Buoyed by a re-found desire to test himself at the top level, Dixon said the squad will soon realise the dream of playing at that level, with many of the squad completely inexperienced in Super League.

“Personally it was a hard move to make at the time,” he said. “I’d worked hard all my career to become a Super League player and obviously to go down to Championship is not ideal. But that was the move that had to be done, but the excitement to be a Super League player again is nice.
“There’s a lot of boys who haven’t played Super League and this is going to be their first opportunity which is also nice because everyone grows up playing rugby dreaming of playing Super League and they’ll get to live that dream now. As soon as Round 1 strikes and we face Wakefield, I think that realisation is going to hit.”
One man who will no doubt be keeping  a watchful eye, and be cautious over predictions, will be Garry Schofield. The League Express columnist predicted the Broncos would finish 10th in the Championship last season, having also done his 2019 predictions in this week’s  edition, but they defied the odds and gained promotion.
 “There was a few words to say about that!” Dixon joked. “It was nice just to prove somebody wrong by such a big margin. I think he said he couldn’t see us finishing any higher than tenth and we finished second and got to Super League.”