LONDON BRONCOS 106 NORTH WALES CRUSADERS 18
MARC BAZELEY, Cherry Red Records Stadium, Saturday

MUCH has changed since the last time these sides met in a competitive game 15 years ago.

For starters, it was in Super League and London Broncos were going under the Harlequins RL name, while North Wales – then simply Crusaders – emerged victorious.

To call this encounter competitive in anything but name would have been bordering on breaching the Trades Descriptions Act though, because while the Broncos and Crusaders are once again playing in the same division, the gap between these sides is more of a vast, yawning chasm.

An 88-point chasm to be precise, with the new-look Londoners doling out another thrashing on the back of their 84-6 win away to Swinton in round three of the Championship to maintain their unbeaten start to the league campaign.

That in itself marked the Broncos’ highest-ever score in a league fixture, but that was not the only club record to fall on a night when the archives were being scoured as early as half-time when the Championship leaders had already passed the half-century mark.

This marked the biggest win in the capital club’s history, their highest number of points scored in any game, and comfortably surpassed their biggest margin of victory in a league match from the 82-0 win over Highfield way back in 1995.

And all this without star off-season recruit and captain Reagan Campbell-Gillard, with the former Australia international sidelined for at least three more weeks with a calf injury.

This was a night for individual records too, with stand-off Jimmy Meadows shattering Rob Purdham’s records of 13 goals and 34 points in a game, by kicking 17 out of 18 – the post denying him a perfect record with the boot – alongside two tries for a 42-point haul.

As for the rest of the scoring, the signs were ominous for North Wales from the moment Broncos second-row Epel Kapinas crashed through for the opening try with three minutes on the the clock, and they were already 30 points down by the time head coach Dean Muir decamped from the press box to the touchline midway through the first half.

Fullback Morea Morea, who now has seven tries for the season, led the way for London in terms of tries thanks to a hat-trick as he proved a thorn in the Crusaders’ side all evening.

There were two tries each for Neil Tchamambe, Finley Glare and Gairo Voro, while Jack Croft, Emarly Bitungane, Ben Hursey-Hord, Luke Smith, Liam Tindall and Sadiq Adebiyi completed the rout with one each.

The handful of Crusaders fans who made the long trip to SW19 were at least given something to cheer about by Greg Eden, with the former Super League winger punishing three Broncos errors to nab a hat-trick of tries, one converted by Dec Patton and two by Junior Westwood.

But it was otherwise all about the hosts, who once again pressed their case for a return to Super League in 2027, while a return to the top flight for North Wales was left seeming as far away as ever.

GAMESTAR: It’s difficult to single out one player on a night when barely anyone put a foot wrong for London, but Morea Morea had the Crusaders chasing shadows for the entire 80 minutes and popped up with several assists to go with his try haul.

GAMEBREAKER: Three tries inside the first ten minutes for the hosts set the tone for the match.

MATCHFACTS

BRONCOS
1 Morea Morea
5 Liam Tindall
20 Brandon Webster-Mansfield
2 Elliot Wallis
26 Neil Tchamambe
18 James Meadows
23 Gairo Voro
10 Emarly Bitungane
9 Sam Davis
16 Epel Kapinias
11 Luke Smith
12 Jack Croft
13 Siliva Havili
Subs (all used)
14 Finley Glare
17 Marcus Stock
15 Sadiq Adebiyi
19 Ben Hursey-Hord

Tries: Kapinias (3), Meadows (8, 66), Croft (10), Voro (15, 24), Tchamambe (18, 41), Morea (20, 26, 47), Glare (33, 36), Bitungane (44), Hursey-Hord (51), Smith (54), Tindall (63), Adebiyi (71)
Goals: Meadows 17/18

CRUSADERS
1 Lloyd Roby
23 Greg Eden
3 Jayden Hatton
26 Patrick Ah Van
5 Luke Forber
6 Dec Patton
7 Jordy Gibson
16 Mark Ioane
9 Josh Eaves
10 Chris Barratt
4 Jake Spedding
17 Ashton Robinson
25 Danny Addy
Subs (all used)
14 Joe Baldwin
20 Tom Bridge
18 Junior Westwood
13 Pat Moran

Tries: Eden (28, 75, 78)
Goals: Patton 1/1, Westwood 2/2

SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 12-0, 18-0, 24-0, 30-0, 36-0, 40-0, 46-0, 46-6, 52-6, 58-6; 64-6, 70-6, 76-6, 82-6, 88-6, 94-6, 100-6, 106-6, 106-12, 106-18

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Broncos: Morea Morea; Crusaders: Greg Eden

Penalty count: 6-2
Half-time: 58-6
Referee: Tara Jones