Sheffield Eagles scrape past London Broncos

LONDON BRONCOS 20 SHEFFIELD EAGLES 22
MARC BAZELEY, The Rock, Roehampton, Sunday

SHEFFIELD mounted a second-half fightback to end their London Broncos hoodoo and boost their bid to climb out of the bottom four with a third win of the league campaign.

Dual-registration Wigan stand-off Jack Farrimond’s try and the 100th of Alex Walker’s career, both of which were converted by Chris Hellec, either side of James Glover’s score for the Eagles helped the Broncos into an eight-point lead at half-time as they aimed to make it a fourth win over the South Yorkshire side in a row.

But tries by Oliver Roberts, ex-Broncos prop Eddie Battye and Tyler Dickinson, all converted by Cory Aston, proved enough to get them over the line despite borrowed Hull KR back Louix Gorman’s try and Hellec’s fourth kick from four setting up a grandstand finish.

Sheffield made the brighter start to the match, switched to the Broncos’ training base at Rosslyn Park Rugby Union club, forcing an early drop-out and applying plenty of pressure.

Yet it was the capital club who took the lead after 15 minutes. Kian McDermott made the initial break and Wigan colleague Farrimond jinked his way through the defence to finish close to the posts.

The Broncos were back on the defensive straight from the restart after Sheffield recovered the ball, but some superb work on their own line meant they held out.

Sheffield did manage to get on the board midway through the first half, with Jack Bussey rampaging through the defence to get his side on the front foot, followed by Alex Foster flinging a pass out to Glover, who went over wide on the left.

However a calamitous turn of events six minutes before the break meant the Broncos pushed further ahead, Sheffield fumbled possession from a scrum in their own half, and the ball was kicked ahead for Walker to dive on it.

The visitors hit back eight minutes after the break when Roberts managed to force his way over between the posts from close range, and then Glover was denied a second try in the 56th minute due to a forward pass in the build-up.

Hellec’s 63rd-minute penalty-goal edged the Broncos four points ahead, but their own ill-discipline proved costly four minutes later as they gave away a set restart on the last tackle which was punished when former Broncos cult hero Battye crashed over, with the conversion putting his side 16-14 up.

His fellow frontrow Dickinson looked to have helped put the seal on the win six minutes from the end as he ran a smart line and took a pass from Corey Johnson to power through, but his side were not out of the woods yet.

Inside the final two minutes, Gorman splintered the line and raced around 50 metres down the left edge for a try, but the clock was against the Broncos.

GAMESTAR: Oliver Roberts. As well as scoring a try for Sheffield, he put in a huge shift in the second row to help the visitors earn the win.

GAMEBREAKER: Tyler Dickinson’s 74th-minute try and the conversion from Cory Aston gave the Eagles just enough breathing space.

MATCHFACTS
BRONCOS
6 Luke Polselli
2 Chris Hellec
20 Aaron Small
14 Louix Gorman
5 Liam Tindall
34 Jack Farrimond
1 Alex Walker
12 Sadiq Adebiyi
9 Curtis Davies
16 Kian McDermott
11 Will Lovell
19 Lukas Mason
13 Marcus Stock
Subs (all used)
22 Matt Ross
27 Taylor Kerr
7 Connor O’Beirne
18 Ben Hursey-Hord

Tries: Farrimond (15), Walker (34), Gorman (79)
Goals: Hellec 4/4

EAGLES
34 Harvey Horne
21 Ryan Millar
3 Kris Welham
4 James Glover
5 Matty Dawson-Jones
6 Cory Aston
7 Morgan Smith
8 Eddie Battye
9 Corey Johnson
10 Tyler Dickinson
24 Oliver Roberts
23 Alex Foster
18 Jack Bussey
Subs (all used)
14 Reiss Butterworth
15 Evan Hodgson
16 Blake Broadbent
36 Darius Carter