LONDON BRONCOS 40 BATLEY BULLDOGS 12
DAVID BALLHEIMER, Cherry Red Records Stadium, Sunday

LEADERS London with their Papua New Guinean influence made it seven wins out of seven, but this was far from a sparkling performance on a day that was definitely more Yorkshire than Pacific Islands, leading to numerous handling errors and slips.

Batley offered much in attack and defence, but they were unable to deal with all the weapons in the hosts’ plentiful arsenal.

In the fifth minute, Brandon Webster-Mansfield made a break and timed his pass perfectly for Liam Tindall to finish, although James Meadows’s kick didn’t go close to the posts.

Robbie Butterworth’s restart bounced into touch inside the London ten, and four tackles later, Ben Reynolds grubbered into the in-goal area for Jack Hudson to pounce on the bouncing ball in front of Morea Morea. Reynolds gave the Bulldogs the lead with his conversion.

The Batley defence made two superb last-ditch defensive plays, stopping Jack Croft and Elliot Wallis, but in the 17th minute, they couldn’t stop another powerful Webster-Mansfield run and he sent Luke Smith over. Meadows added the extras.

Reynolds’ kicks proved troublesome, however, and his 24th-minute grubber was palmed dead in-goal.

The Broncos went all the way to the other end and Smith grabbed his second try of the afternoon, this time after Siliva Havili and Meadows had combined.

The hosts made it back-to-back tries. Meadows danced through four tacklers to score, following a damaging run by Lewis Bienek.

Meadows converted, and did the same when he went over again in the 34th minute, when Gairo Voro’s inviting pass set him up.

The first half ended with Batley attacking the Broncos line, courtesy of number of repeat sets, and moments before the hooter, Alistair Leak fought his way over from dummy-half, grounding the ball just to the left of the posts for Reynolds to add the two.

In the 46th minute, Neil Tchamambe scored from the base of a scrum, grounding the ball just inside the touchline from Meadows’ pass. Three minutes later, Voro tried to repeat the feat, but he was pushed into touch.

The Broncos missed further chances, with Tindall involved twice. First he couldn’t handle a very difficult pass from Meadows, then his attempt to send Smith over for his hat-trick was ruled forward.

Batley continued to defend stoutly, conceding a few scrums as they stopped passes reaching potential scorers.

But in the 74th minute, from another ten-metre scrum, the Broncos scored, Tindall going over in the right corner. Meadows was short with his kick (his four misses were all from wide out).

With two minutes remaining, however, he made no mistake from the tee after Marcus Stock’s try beside the posts. Meadows also got the credit for the assist, timing his pass perfectly for Stock to stroll through a huge hole.

GAMESTAR: Brandon Webster-Mansfield played his part in a number of London tries with his powerful running and was solid in defence.

GAMEBREAKER: At just 10-6 up, the Broncos survived a dangerous-looking Ben Reynolds grubber, and then scored three tries in nine minutes.

MATCHFACTS

BRONCOS
1 Morea Morea
5 Liam Tindall
20 Brandon Webster-Mansfield
2 Elliot Wallis
26 Neil Tchamambe
23 Gairo Voro
18 James Meadows
16 Epel Kapinias
9 Sam Davis
10 Emarly Bitungane
11 Luke Smith
12 Jack Croft
13 Siliva Havili
Subs (all used)
6 Connor O’Beirne
17 Marcus Stock
19 Ben Hursey-Hord
24 Lewis Bienek

Tries: Tindall (5, 73), Smith (17, 25), Meadows (28, 34), Tchamambe (47), Stock (77)
Goals: Meadows 4/8

BULLDOGS
1 Robbie Butterworth
24 Paul Foulstone
20 Jack Hudson
3 Ollie Greensmith
25 Derrell Olpherts
6 Ben Reynolds
14 Ben White
27 Ronan Dixon
18 Evan Hodgson
17 Liam Kirk
11 Dane Manning
15 Nyle Flynn
13 Robson Stevens
Subs (all used)
9 Alistair Leak
16 Michael Ward
24 Akim Matvejev
22 Jay Scriven

Tries: Hudson (8), Leak (40)
Goals: Reynolds 2/2

SCORING SEQUENCE: 4-0, 4-6, 10-6, 14-6, 20-6, 26-6, 26-12; 30-12, 34-12, 40-12

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Broncos: Luke Smith; Bulldogs: Ben Reynolds

Penalty count: 3-3
Half-time: 26–12
Referee: Ryan Cox