LONDON BRONCOS coach Mikes Eccles is hoping his makeshift side can get a slice of luck as they aim to pick up further points in a bid to escape the lower reaches of the table.
In the long term, it’s hoped prospective new owners will come in, maybe later this month, and provide significant funds for new players.
In the shorter term, Eccles will continue to battle on with a patchwork squad put together on a limited budget and supplemented by borrowed players.
Having lost Super League status at the end of last season, there’s a clear danger of a descent into League One, with the bottom four come mid-September, when regular-season Championship fixtures finish, being pitched into an eights competition which also involve the top four third-tier teams and determine who will play in which division in 2026.
The Broncos’ loss to Sheffield was a fifth straight league defeat and they still have only two from ten this year.
For the preceding 36-6 home defeat by York, Eccles had the services of two emerging Hull KR players, centre Louix Gorman, 20, and scrum-half Lennie Ellis, 19, and two 19-year-old Wigan prospects, prop Kian McDermott and secondrow Lukas Mason.
Meanwhile former Broncos prop, Papua New Guinea international Emmanuel Waine, made a second appearance on loan from Bradford.
Ellis partnered Alex Walker, who is more regularly a fullback, and Eccles pointed out: “We were pleased to get Lennie over the line, but he only met the blokes the night before, and not many teams are going to score many points without experienced halves.
“The mentality of the players was fantastic, but against sides who are spending more money than us and have more experienced players than us, there is no magic answer.
“We don’t just have to get everything right to have a chance of winning games, we also have to have a bit of luck, and we haven’t had much.”
