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Well, to be honest, there is no real words which can describe the Broncos performance in the most positive light tonight. Following last week’s more promising performance against Salford there was hope that we could bring some kind of momentum into this fixture, especially with the blaring importance of this result, but unfortunately it just didn’t look like London were close to sustaining any sort of momentum at any given point in this fixture. A real shame.
TEAM NEWS: Castleford vs London Broncos Mike Eccles has named his starting line-up for the round 9 Super League tie with Castleford Tigers at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle. Sadiq Adebiyi returns to the matchday 18 following a spell on the sidelines injured meanwhile Ethan Natoli misses out on the squad after returning to the 21 this week. Rob Butler hasn’t travelled with the squad after his partner gave birth on Thursday. The line-up is as follows; Alex Walker Lee Kershaw Jarred bassett 21. Robbie Storey 4. Hakim Miloudi 20. Oli Leyland 7. James Meadows 19. Rhys Kennedy 9. Sam Davis 15. Marcus Stock 11. Will Lovell (c) 29. Jacob Jones 13. Dean Parata Interchanges: Harvey Makin, Jordan Williams, Ugo Tison & Sadiq Adebiyi 18th man: Iliess Macani
The London Broncos have their fourth Super League away game of 2024 on Friday as they face off against Castleford Tigers at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle. This is the first game that the Broncos have played against Castleford since 10 th August 2019, where the Tigers walked away 20-6 victors in front of a crowd of 5,497 at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle. Click here to read the full in-depth history of the London Broncos vs Castleford Tigers fixture! The Broncos have had a difficult beginning to their 2024 Super League campaign, losing their first 8 games to St Helens Saints (40-4, click here to read the full match report ), Catalans Dragons (0-34, click here to read the full match report ) Hull FC (28-24, click here to read the full match report ), Wigan Warriors (22-60, click here to read the full match report ), Warrington Wolves (4-58, click here to read the full match report ), Huddersfield Giants (6-26, click here to read the full match report ), Hull KR (50-10, click here to read the full match report ) & Salford Red Devils (4-12, click here to read the full match report ). Castleford have also played eight games so far this season and are currently sat in 10 th place after winning 1 (36-24 vs Salford Red Devils) and losing 7 (4-32 vs Wigan Warriors, 26-22 vs Salford Red Devils, 30-8 vs Warrington Wolves, 8-50 vs Huddersfield Giants, 40-14 vs Catalans Dragons, 6-26 vs Leeds Rhinos & 36-14 vs Wigan Warriors) games so far this season. Speaking ahead of our Round 9 clash on Friday, Castleford Tigers coach Craig Lingard says "There is a great opportunity in this next game for us to build some momentum, but we don’t want to look too far ahead- our focus is on Friday. “I thought last week that we were a lot more competitive in individual areas throughout the game. The challenge for us this game and all season is that we need to do this for longer and if we do that for the full 80 minutes, we should be alright but if we’re off in any part of the game against London, they are good enough to get the win”. WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY AT CASTLEFORD
London Broncos are delighted to work together with LIT7s to enjoy as much rugby as possible in Wimbledon on the May bank holiday weekend!
Castleford Tigers vs London Broncos is a matchup which is the 9 th most frequent in Bronco’s Super League history (drawing with Wakefield Trinity) with the fixture taking place on 39 occasions and 50 times across all competitions. Out of these 50 occasions, the Broncos have won 18, lost 27 and drawn 5. The Broncos have played Castleford away at Wheldon Road on 24 occasions with the Broncos winning 11, losing 12 and drawing 1. The first matchup between Castleford Tigers and London Broncos took place on December 6 th , 1981, where Castleford came away 19-7 victors at Craven Cottage in front of a crowd of 4,675. On the previous occasion that the Broncos took on Castleford at the Mend-a-Hose Jungle (10 th August 2019), the Tigers came away 20-6 victors in front of a crowd of 5,497. The Tigers have won their last 3 home games vs the Broncos and are unbeaten at home against London since 2013. Castleford have taken on London in three different names since their first meeting in 1981 (Fulham RL, Harlequins RL & London Broncos) and the two sides have played each other at many different venues across their history including Craven Cottage, Wheldon Road, the Polytechnic, the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, the Valley, the Stoop, Headingly, Griffin Park & Trailfinders. Check out the photo gallery below to see some of the best Castleford Tigers vs London Broncos images throughout the years!
SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT: 21-man squad named for trip to Castleford!
In profile with Sam Davis Sam Davis was born in 1998 in Burbage in Leicestershire into what is a Rugby Union dominated part of the country with Leicester Tigers being the local side. Growing up he would watch his dad Ian play rugby along with his younger and older brothers. His elder brother Matt would later become a London Broncos, paving the way for Sam’s journey with the club. His dad was also a very good speedway racer and would regularly be racing with his sons watching on. At high school was when Sam’s talents for rugby were really beginning to show; “In year 8 is when we went off to trial for Leicester Tigers so at around the age of 12 is when I can remember first being nervous about stepping out onto a rugby field. “It’s a strange environment in Union (trials) compared to League, it’s very cagey and lots of the lads didn’t speak to each other. Everyone was so nervous so it was a good experience so it definitely helped me going forward but as a kid it was quite a lot going to these places and fighting for a spot.” Sports-mad as a youngster Sam was playing rugby union, football and cricket but “there was no League at school.” Rugby League was actually introduced to the family through his grandmother who was from Saint Helens so throughout his childhood Sam would keep an eye on their results; “Growing up spending time with my Nan I remember watching Saints on the TV on a Sunday in the Challenge Cup so I was a bit of a Saints fan growing up and eventually the time came at around 15 to start playing. “There were 9s tournaments in the area and I played for Leicester Storm originally and then eventually moved on to play scholarship for Midlands Hurricanes against teams like Leeds & Bradford so that’s when it kind of came to fruition.” Sam’s older brother will be someone incredibly familiar with London Broncos fans. Matt Davis is two years older and came through the Broncos academy, making his debut in 2015. Matt has since gone on to play for Warrington Wolves and is currently at fellow Super League side Leigh Leopards. “We pretty much followed the exact same path; we both got into (Leicester) Tigers, both got left out of the Tigers system and then went into Rugby League before finding our way into Broncos. Our track to the Broncos first team was pretty much the same so it’s quite funny really and we now find ourselves both in the Super League!” “Our relationship with each other is great, we’ve never really been competitive with each other. It's been more “how can we help each other?” It’s always been like that. That’s why we have such a good relationship - that’s why we are best mates because we always look out for each other.” When Sam was in first year academy at Midlands Hurricanes, whilst he was at Sixth Form, and Matt was already in the Broncos first team was when he was first invited down to London. “There were 4 of us from the Midlands who came down and trialled with Broncos and we all got picked up and started playing games pretty much straight away. It was Louis Godfrey and Jacob Ogden who also played with me in the first team.” In 2018 Broncos gained promotion to Super League after a Grand Final victory over Toronto. Matt, a key player that year whilst Sam, was a first team squad member, was a peripheral figure in the squad. Experiencing and getting a taste for that success would ultimately motivate him to speed up his progress into the team and eventually lead him to replicate a similar Grand Final success in 2023. “In round 1 of the 2018 season I made my debut against Barrow, when I was only a third year academy, and then in my second game I scored my first try and to do that alongside my brother was a really proud moment for me. “Watching the boys get promoted, all of us young lads were watching them in Toronto and that was massive for me seeing those boys get promoted to Super League.”
Match Report
Despite the best performance of the season so far, the Broncos did not come away with the two points which they so desperately desired as twelve-man Salford hung on to claim victory in the capital.
The London Broncos have their fifth Super League home game of 2024 this Saturday as they face off against Salford Red Devils at the Cherry Red Records Stadium. This is the first game that the Broncos have played against Salford since 4 th August 2019, where the Red Devils walked away 28-58 victors in front of a crowd of 1,445 at Trailfinders. Click here to read the full in-depth history of the London Broncos vs Salford Red Devils fixture! The Broncos have had a difficult beginning to their 2024 Super League campaign, losing their first 7 games to St Helens Saints (40-4, click here to read the full match report ), Catalans Dragons (0-34, click here to read the full match report ) Hull FC (28-24, click here to read the full match report ), Wigan Warriors (22-60, click here to read the full match report ), Warrington Wolves (4-58, click here to read the full match report ), Huddersfield Giants (6-26, click here to read the full match report ) & Hull KR (50-10, click here to read the full match report ). Salford have also played seven games so far this season and are currently sat in 7 th place after winning 4 (26-22 vs Castleford, 17-10 vs Hull KR, 20-24 vs Saint Helens & 32-22 vs Leigh Leopards) and losing 3 (22-16 vs Leeds Rhinos, 12-22 vs Wigan Warriors & 36-24 vs Castleford Tigers) games so far this season. Speaking ahead of our Round 8 clash on Saturday, Salford Red Devils assistant coach Krisnan Inu says "You don't judge any team on their past performances. Anyone can win on the day and they're a good team, good rugby team, and they know how to play with the ball." Also speaking ahead of Saturday’s fixture is Red Devils’ player Joe Shorrocks, who says “We’ve spoken about it (London) as a team, we’re pretty sure that we won’t let (Round 7 loss) happen again. Hopefully this week we can improve. “They are obviously desperate for a win like Castleford were. They’re at home and they’ll have some fans behind them. They throw the ball about which is difficult to defend in itself so we have to look out for that especially”. Ahead of this Saturday’s fixture we caught up with new Bronco’s loan signing Ugo Tison who says “I am happy to be here, I’m happy to be in London. It’s a great opportunity for me to play more games in Super League and I want to play well for London. “I’m very excited, I hope I play this week! “I am a simple player, I can play hooker or half. I have a lot of vision and a player who works hard and doesn’t make many mistakes!” Also talking to Broncos media this week was Sam Davis, who scored the first Super League try of his career in our Round 7 matchup vs Hull KR (watch the video below to see his try) Davis says “It’s one thing getting here but as a group we want to thrive, we don’t want to be a passenger in this league and that’s what we are going to strive to do. "We want to win games and we want to compete. We’re building every week and we are getting better and that’s the goal.”
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