LONDON BRONCOS 18 TOULOUSE OLYMPIQUE 24
HUW RICHARDS, Cherry Red Records Stadium, Sunday
THREE TRIES in a lethal six-minute burst maintained Toulouse’s quest to win Super League status by the outdated and unfashionable route of winning rugby matches, devastating London after their best hour of the season.
The Broncos marked coach Mike Eccles’ 100th match with a display epitomising his impact throughout that period. For the fourth year running his coaching has improved both individuals and the collective immeasurably across the season.
There was the fiercely committed defence that frustrated Toulouse into spells of fumbling exasperation, the selflessness that saw Lewis Bienek – who had warned that he might not last the first minute – battle for 55 minutes, and the intelligent pragmatism shown by punishing Toulouse’s indiscipline with Jack Smith’s series of two-point penalties.
“I’m absolutely devastated for the lads; they were brilliant today. I don’t want to take anything away from Toulouse, they’re a really good team, but I thought we were the better team,” said Eccles, who added that five or six players were “playing on one leg”.
London have also at their best been capable of worrying the strongest opposition. Their misfortune was that Toulouse, frustrated and chaotic for much of the previous hour, were capable of taking ruthless advantage when their hosts ran out of steam.
Much of this was down to the elusive, diminutive Thomas Lacans at stand-off and former Bronco fullback Olly Ashall-Bott, whom Eccles reckons was “the difference between us in both games this season”.
Had Smith’s fifth penalty shot gone over instead of hitting the post with 18 minutes left, London would have had a three-score lead they might have defended. Instead the gap remained at 18-6, and once the lethally darting Lacans had doubled back to cross under the posts with 14 minutes left, a Toulouse comeback was on.
They were level two minutes later when Lacans was first to Ashall-Bott’s smartly angled grubber and calm enough to pause before picking up to cross. Shorrocks converted both, and then nailed a ferociously-struck 40/20 that defied Chris Hellec’s desperate attempt to keep it in play.
From there, Ashall-Bott crossing near the posts was all but inevitable, leaving Shorrocks a further simple conversion.
London were on their knees and their last chance evaporated when the admirable Alex Walker, another playing through injury, made a clean break but could not find support.
London had dominated the first hour, with Liam Tindall crossing twice in the first quarter to take his season’s tally to 11 before failing a head-injury assessment after the second score. Smith landed the second conversion then landed four consecutive two-pointers to make it 18-6 with half an hour left, Toulouse’s only score at that stage was a try from Ashall-Bott following Matthieu Jussaume’s break.
If Toulouse had reckoned inexperienced debutant Charlie Robson a potential weak spot they found differently, as he first put in a superb tackle on the charging Joe Cator, then fielded a steepling bomb to side-step a tackler and charge more than 70 metres on a run, which was thwarted only by the comparable speed of Ashall-Bott.
GAMESTAR: Olly Ashall-Bott was brilliant in attack and defence and was the difference in both games this season, according to London coach Mike Eccles.
GAMEBREAKER: Jake Shorrocks’ 40/20 with London on their knees after conceding two quick tries made the match-winning third almost a certainty.
MATCHFACTS
BRONCOS
1 Alex Walker
26 Charlie Robson
3 Ethan Natoli
33 Jack Smith
5 Liam Tindall
28 Jenson Binks
7 Connor O’Beirne
10 Lewis Bienek
9 Curtis Davies
15 Dan Okoro
11 Will Lovell
12 Sadiq Adebiyi
13 Marcus Stock
Subs (all used)
2 Chris Hellec
8 Huw Worthington
18 Ben Hursey-Hord
34 Tommy Porter
Tries: Tindall (7, 20)
Goals: Smith 5/7
OLYMPIQUE
1 Olly Ashall-Bott
2 Paul Ulberg
5 Paul Marcon
3 Rueben Rennie
19 Benjamin Laguerre
25 Thomas Lacans
7 Jake Shorrocks
8 Lambert Belmas
13 Anthony Marion
16 Joe Bretherton
4 Mathieu Jussaume
11 Maxime Stefani
15 Joe Cator
Subs (all used)
10 James Roumanos
21 Ellis Gillam
28 AJ Wallace
35 Brendan Hands
Tries: Ashall-Bott (11, 72), Lacans (66, 68)
Goals: Shorrocks 4/4
SCORING SEQUENCE: 4-0, 4-6, 10-6, 12-6, 14-6; 16-6, 18-6, 18-12, 18-18, 18-24
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Broncos: Alex Walker; Olympique: Thomas Lacans
Penalty count: 10-8
Half-time: 14-6
Referee: James Vella