Wigan Warriors vs London Broncos

June 17, 2024

LONDON BRONCOS V ST HELENS (by David Ballheimer) London Broncos (0) 6, St Helens (24) 52 London Broncos were given another harsh lesson in rugby league professionalism by St Helens, who ran in nine tries to return to the top of the Super League table. The Broncos tried hard to be competitive but the Saints were clinical, not just managing the game with consummate ease, waiting for mistakes to be made and punishing them mercilessly. Three of the first four tries came after London errors and the size of players in particular Sione Mata’uita, Konrad Hurrell and Agnatius Paasi. That said, the game got off to a worrying start for the Saints, who suffered a blow late in the game’s first possession when Tommy Makinson picked up a leg injury and was replaced by Ben Davies. It forced a reshuffle of wings and centers and St Helens could only rotate three substitutes. After seven minutes, a last tackle by Moses Mbye picked out Waqa Blake on the right. He outpaced Hakim Miloudi, laid the ball down and Mark Perceval made no mistake with the shot; indeed, he was to better eight of St Helens’ nine tries (and the other hit a post). After Jack Welsby was held up in goal, Saints scored twice in three minutes, first when Mbye passed to Mata’uita, who failed to set up Lewis Dodd to dive under the bar. When the Broncos committed a fumble on their own 40, Mbye, after three assists, ran over him for a well-deserved score. Things were in danger of getting horribly out of hand for London, but they tightened their defense on the goal line and were not fouled again before the break, although the video referee came to London’s rescue by ruling out another try, for this deciding there. it was a double move by Noah Stephens. It took 33 minutes for the Broncos to sniff the Saints’ tryline, but they lost the ball on the second tackle of a fourth successive set inside the St Helens 20m line. However, the second half started horribly for the Broncos, who were torn apart by James Bell and Daryl Clark, the latter scoring an eight-minute hat-trick between the 45th and 53rd minutes. Bell did the heavy lifting for the first two tries , while Mata’utia, Hurrell and Welsby were the main creators of a thrilling third score that covered 60 metres. In the 59th minute, Alex Walker made a break – London’s first clean line break of the afternoon – and, tackled by Welsby, attempted a shot for Miloudi to follow into the left corner. Blake, after showing his attacking talents earlier, now showed his defensive skills by getting to the ball ahead of Miloudi. After Perceval became the third Saints player to have a try disallowed by the video referee, Hurrell – who had proved almost impossible for London to stop once he got up to speed – pounced over his eighth try of the visitors, which Perceval failed to do. convert. With five minutes to go, a clever shot from Dodds eluded Lee Kershaw and Perceval landed in the corner. With 80 seconds remaining, a strong break from Jarred Bassett down the left gave London a very good scoring opportunity – Saints coach Paul Wellens praised the pimp Clark for his ankle touch to stop Bassett – and they did to pay, Kershaw scored in the corner and Oli. Leyland adding extra. London Broncos: 1 Alex Walker, 2, Lee Kershaw, 21 Robbie Storey, 3 Jarred Bassett, 4 Hakim Miloudi, 20 Oli Leyland, 7 James Meadows, 10 Lewis Bienik, 34 Ugo Tison, 19 Rhys Kennedy, 11 Will Lovell, 12 Ethan Natoli, 29 years old Jacob Jones. Subs: 15 Marcus Stock, 16 Jordan Williams, 17 Sid Adebiyi, 18 Emmanuel Waine. 18th man: 24 Matt Davies. Tries: Kershaw (79) Goals: Leyland 1/1 St Helens: 1 Jack Welsby, 2 Tommy Makinson, 23 Konrad Hurrell, 4 Mark Percival, 3 Waqa Blake, 14 Moses Mbye, 7 Lewis Dodd, 20 George Delaney, 9 Daryl Clark , 10 Matty Lees, 11 Sione Mata’utia, 16 Curtis Sironen, 15 James Bell. Subs: 17 Agnatius Paasi, 21 Ben Davies, 22 Sam Royle, 31 Noah Stephens. 18th Man: 5 Jon Bennison. Tries: Blake (7, 16), Dodd (19), Mbye (25), Clark (45, 50, 53), Hurrell (71), Perceval (75) Goals: Perceval 8/9 Referee: James Vella HT: 0 –24 Number of Penalties Given: 5–5 Attendance: East 4,600