Thu 18 Apr: SL: London Broncos v Catalans Dragons KO 7.45pm

[John Drake]

Discuss London Broncos v Catalans Dragons here.

[DavidM]

London to win this one 

[THE RED ROOSTER]

You know there is two ways this game can go either :

Losing to a Halifax side minus 8 first grade players (credit to them BTW) basically blew away any feel good factor from the Broncos three wins. Hopefully this means that the side has been given a coating by Danny Ward and quite a few players told they need to aim up or ship out which causes a reaction and London upset the odds by inflicting a defeat on Catalans. Particularily so if our benefactor has taken a leaf out of M Guasch' s textbook and left the assembled XIII at Halifax know exactly what he feels about subsidising a side out enthused by a part-time side and producing an unacceptable performance

Or

London just carry on as before, playing 60 mins out of 80 with a few garbage time tries making the final scoreline respectable. As Robert De Niro put it in  the film,Raging Bull "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.” Truly the Jake LaMotta  school of Rugby League  in which case it is hard even at my most optimistic seeing them win again this season.

Catalans tactics will be obvious just let Remy Casty, Julien Bousquet and Sam Kasiano rumble up and down the middle of the park all evening with a few close quarter unionesque barge over tries. As per the template Huddersfield set and Catalans copied against Hull. Of course Catalans have a disciplne problem and mayas in the Hull game gift the game to the Broncos even with the last kick in regulation time.... We can but dream.

London have to battle and scrap like injury hit Hull did and there's no Jake Connor equivalent at London. For sure the club is screaming for two props and a playmaker, but I do have it from a source I trust, that Danny Ward has been told there will be no new signings. So it could be a long night for the faithful few at Trailfinders.

So its looking like a record low crowd, a first grade squad without The london phantom and while we are on musuical references, London's fans left like the cast of Les Miserables

Catalans by 20 .

[Guest]

That quote is Brando from On the Waterfront. 

[MZH]

This feels like a must win for London and I'm going to back them to do it.

London by 4

[Hemel Stag]

Catalans have been good at turning over clubs that come with a well regimented style of play. They have read it and played around it or through it. Meanwhile more unpredictable sides have done well. If London can be disruptive and unpredictable they have every chance of doing well.

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

My outlier of the week - London by 6.

[nadera78]

London desperately need a win here, it's been a poor few weeks results-wise. I must admit I'm worried about the sheer size of Catalans driving them through, but this Broncos team has heart and guts. 

[Sparse Attendance]

Who knows what type of attitude the Catalans players will turn up with. I always try to avoid them on the “Fixed Odds”, i just don’t trust them. 

[Bleep1673]

Catalans by 300

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

1 hour ago, Bleep1673 said:

Catalans by 300

Optimist!

[Oliver Clothesoff]

700 crowd and 14-28 to Catalans. 

[Southerner80]

24 minutes ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

700 crowd and 14-28 to Catalans. 

Going to this one with my son, so I guess won't have to worry about a lack of car park space if crowd is that low. 

Thursday night kick off around Easter probably a hard one for some fans and Dragons don't bring much away support. 

I would be happy with 28-14 to Dragons. Les Dracs don't look like racking up a huge score easily and are down to one senior winger with good SL experience so a win by 14pts away from home would be nice thank you, to go 6-5 from the first 11 and firmly In top 5 contention. 

[Bleep1673]

1 hour ago, Chronicler of Chiswick said:

Optimist!

No, attendance.

[Bleep1673]

This is why Sky should be killed. a Thursday night game between the worst attended, versus the worst travelled. I expect an attendance of less than 500, & making it the worst ever Rugby Super League attendance, who the F*** draw up these divisions? Madness. 

[Oliver Clothesoff]

3 hours ago, Bleep1673 said:

This is why Sky should be killed. a Thursday night game between the worst attended, versus the worst travelled. I expect an attendance of less than 500, & making it the worst ever Rugby Super League attendance, who the F*** draw up these divisions? Madness. 

There’s so much wrong with this post. Maybe the next one will go better for you. 

[EssexRL]

4 hours ago, Southerner80 said:

Going to this one with my son, so I guess won't have to worry about a lack of car park space if crowd is that low. 

Thursday night kick off around Easter probably a hard one for some fans and Dragons don't bring much away support. 

I would be happy with 28-14 to Dragons. Les Dracs don't look like racking up a huge score easily and are down to one senior winger with good SL experience so a win by 14pts away from home would be nice thank you, to go 6-5 from the first 11 and firmly In top 5 contention. 

There’s a missed opportunity here. TWPs game against Sheffield at New River had 1200 present including a fair chunk of London based Canadians. Many (most?) of those weren’t die hard RL fabs but were happy to support a Canadian team. There are more French people living in London than Canadians. It’s a great shame a similar approach isn’t adopted for this. 

[Southerner80]

16 minutes ago, EssexRL said:

There’s a missed opportunity here. TWPs game against Sheffield at New River had 1200 present including a fair chunk of London based Canadians. Many (most?) of those weren’t die hard RL fabs but were happy to support a Canadian team. There are more French people living in London than Canadians. It’s a great shame a similar approach isn’t adopted for this. 

Its worth a try tbh. I mean Les Dracs are imo Catalans first French second, however still a extra 500 through the gate should surely be do able with some marketing for this game. 

I'm looking forward to it anyway. Are you going to this one? 

 

[Southerner80]

14-0 Cats at HT. Bad injury to Broncos HB Abdul, from a tackle. 

Les Dracs too big and strong and over time that is telling. Broncos well out sized. 

Gigots putting in a good shift at HB created a try with a big up and under that the Defence didn't handle so well. Romano looking OK on the wing and Langi having a big game so far. Bird looking OK at HB too. 

I would hope to see another try or two early on to put this to bed. 

[Southerner80]

24-0 now. Bird looking good. Kasiano causing big problems running at the defence. Could be a big score yet. 

[Tex Evans Thigh]

London won't win another game. They've done well to get the results they have with basically a championship squad but it's hard to keep those efforts going week after week.

Moa should serve a lengthy ban for that late hit on Abdul.

[Man of Kent]

39-6 Dracs FT. London actually caused Catalans some problems early on but couldn’t get it over the stripe.

The result was inevitable given the size of the Catalans pack - Kasiano is an almost absurdly large human being, it’s hard to appreciate the size of him until you see him at close quarters - but the injury to Abdull was a sickening blow in every sense....

[Clogiron]

Looks like Bronco's are going to let Wigan & the Rhinos off the hook which in the long term wont do either of those clubs a favour, they both need a massive kick up the ###### and change of direction which in Leeds' case two experiences of the bottom 4 play-offs doesn't seem to have brought about.   As you were...........

[paulwalker71]

14 minutes ago, Clogiron said:

Looks like Bronco's are going to let Wigan & the Rhinos off the hook which in the long term wont do either of those clubs a favour, they both need a massive kick up the ###### and change of direction which in Leeds' case two experiences of the bottom 4 play-offs doesn't seem to have brought about.   As you were...........

Wigan and Leeds are bloody lucky that Toronto bottled the MPG last year!

[Southerner80]

33 minutes ago, Tex Evans Thigh said:

London won't win another game. They've done well to get the results they have with basically a championship squad but it's hard to keep those efforts going week after week.

Moa should serve a lengthy ban for that late hit on Abdul.

Unless they are willing to bring in 4-5 quality SL players ie Gelling, LMS, Escare type level I can't see them getting beyond another 2 wins. 

Les Dracs are not the best attacking team and put 36pts on them. 

I get how the owner feels are financially they are not suited to SL in their present guise but are great for the championship.