LONDON BRONCOS have retained three of the players who helped them make it through a testing 2025 campaign.
Ex-Super League winger Liam Tindall, Australian halfback Connor O’Beirne and forward Ben Hursey-Hord will all be back.
The trio were signed as the coach and now director of rugby Mike Eccles scrambled a squad together amid the fall-out from former owner David Hughes putting the club up for sale in the wake of relegation from Super League in 2024.
Now new Australian owners Darren Lockyer and Grant Wechsel are chasing a return to the top flight on the back of a big season in the enlarged second tier.
Ex-Leeds and Hull FC man Tindall proved an inspired recruit, quickly taking to life in London and scoring 17 tries in 23 games as the Broncos finished tenth under Eccles ahead of the arrival of Lockyer and Wechsel, who are working with renowned administrator Gary Hetherington.
O’Beirne made 18 appearances, and would have featured more had it not been for a knee injury.
He helped Maitland Pickers land last year’s Newcastle Rugby League title, having two years earlier been a key man in Toukley Hawks’ championship season in the Central Coast Rugby League.
O’Beirne, who came through the Hawks’ junior ranks alongside Wigan centre Adam Keighran, has also played for Carcassonne and Lézignan in the French top flight, figuring for the former in their 36-12 Lord Derby Cup final win over Albi and 34-24 Grand-Final loss to Limoux in 2023.
In April 2024, he made a Lord Derby Cup Final appearance for Lézignan as they went down 22-6 against Carcassonne.
“Connor brings power, passion and that no-nonsense edge through the middle,” said the Broncos on confirming his contract extension.
Hursey-Hord was brought in from Halifax and played 19 times. He had a stint in the Broncos old Academy system after emerging with Invicta Panthers in Maidstone before joining the Leeds development ranks in 2022 when he was a student in the city.