Fri 16th Feb: SL: St Helens v London Broncos KO 8pm (Sky/SL+)

[John Drake]

Discuss the match here.

Please stick to discussing the match in question and do not accuse match officials of being biased or corrupt or you run the risk of being immediately banned from the forum.

[tiffers]

Probably a case of how many and not if...

[The Phantom Horseman]

It will be interesting to see how London adapt to SL. They made 2 or 3 key signings before the business end of last season and were splendidly nurtured by their coach into a competitive team for the play-offs. But 2 of their key additions, Norman and Whare, turned out to be short-term signings only, and the size of their task this year is highlighted by the fact that they finished 18 points adrift of the leaders in the regular-season table.

Their 21-man squad for this evening looks predominantly to consist of players who have spent the last few years in the Championship and seemed to be established as being at that sort of level , but then again few people gave the Broncos much chance in 2019 and they actually went very well despite eventually being relegated. The handicap for tonight's game seems to be about 30, and for me London will have done very well if they manage to keep it under that, if Saints start the season at full throttle it could be very one-sided.

[StandOffHalf]

I'll probably watch the Leeds game and catch up with the two other games over the weekend. This thread may well have been locked by then.

Saints by as much as they want. 40 points at least.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, tiffers said:

Probably a case of how many and not if...

Oh I don't know about that .....I suspect Saints might make a game of it at least in the first half ....though they'll run out of gas and we should win by a comfortable 2 scores by the end 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

London by 12 

Come on Broncos!!!!

[Quinskolar]

Eccles has the advantage of always being underrated. I doubt very much with the injuries in the squad that the Broncos will win until Easter at the earliest.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

6 minutes ago, Quinskolar said:

Eccles has the advantage of always being underrated. I doubt very much with the injuries in the squad that the Broncos will win until Easter at the earliest.

Eccles cake to lead the Southern army to a historic win and you'll all look like chumps soon

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

Saints by 36.

[THE RED ROOSTER]

London Broncos need to take a leaf out of their landlords book. Wimbledon FC in the late 1980's to early 1990's defied the odds before the greed of Soccers Premier League meant the club could no longer compete against open chequebooks. IIRC, when at Selhurst Park which they played at for a while the team came out to the threme from the Battle of Britain. As Vincent Jones esq elequently put it, every game then, as is for the Broncos now is "Sh*t or Bust" and you have give it a crack.

Still If I was a young player seekling to make a career for myself in Rugby League up here or down under I would absolutely be playing for London Broncos, because the opportunity to make a name for yourself is there. To coin a catchphrase, "There may be no I in Team but there is an M and an E " This is an opportnity for anyone with the skill and determination to grasp it.

And finally, I know it's a tough first five games ,but the biggest crime of all is not getting beaten by a better side it's not giving it your best shot. If you go down you need to land a few punches of your own on your opponent.

[Archie Gordon]

Hoping it's not a walk in the park for Saints. I expect London to match anyone for effort and application but they have a Championship-standard squad which is already missing 5 or 6 players. I think they have Hull FC 0 coming up soon - that could be more interesting.

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Eccles cake to lead the Southern army to a historic win and you'll all look like chumps soon

Well, fair play as this is all a lot more inspiring than your post in the thread on London Broncos yesterday...

"London may well not win a single game this year.....it may well put off a massive amount of people ever bothering again...

Barring a miracle of a season results wise I won't be choosing to drive/walk 2 plus hours there and back to see a non competitive match" 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

30 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Well, fair play as this is all a lot more inspiring than your post in the thread on London Broncos yesterday...

"London may well not win a single game this year.....it may well put off a massive amount of people ever bothering again...

Barring a miracle of a season results wise I won't be choosing to drive/walk 2 plus hours there and back to see a non competitive match" 

I'm in a delusional mood

It will pass

[Northern Eel]

Saints by 40+, unfortunately. Anything less than 30 and that's a bonus for London IMO... I hope London and compete.

[Gerrumonside ref]

Come on Saints!

[GeordieSaint]

First game of the season. This will either be very ugly or a bit closer than we expect. 

[Gerrumonside ref]

Anyone else got a very green picture

[GeordieSaint]

1 minute ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

Anyone else got a very green picture

Don’t think the camera quality is great. In fact, I think it was the floodlights warming up…

[Gerrumonside ref]

2 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

Don’t think the camera quality is great. In fact, I think it was the floodlights warming up…

Sometimes when you set up a camera you do a white balance to ensure that multiple camera setups have the same colour.  Only takes a change in the light conditions to take this out of kilter.

Edited February 16 by Gerrumonside ref

[GeordieSaint]

Good to hear the London chant in SL again.

Good try by Dodd.

[Hughsehhh]

It says it's a HD broadcast, but pretty pants if so.

 

How sexy does that broncos shirt look. Might have to ask the missus to get me one 

[Gerrumonside ref]

Dodd in 

[GeordieSaint]

Decent attendance by the looks of it. Well done Saints. 

[Henson Park Old Firm]

The pitch looks terrible

[Gerrumonside ref]

Welsby crashes over.