Betfred Super League Round 14 Match Report

LONDON BRONCOS V ST HELENS (by David Ballheimer)

London Broncos (0) 6, St Helens (24) 52

London Broncos were taught another harsh lesson in rugby league professionalism by St Helens, who ran in nine tries to move back to the top of the Super League table. 

The Broncos tried hard to be competitive, but Saints were clinical, not only managing the game with consummate ease, waiting for mistakes to be made and punishing them ruthlessly. Three of the first four tries came after London errors and the size of players especially Sione Mata’uita, Konrad Hurrell and Agnatius Paasi.

That said, the game started worryingly for the Saints, who suffered a blow at the end of the game’s first possession when Tommy Makinson injured his foot and was replaced by Ben Davies. It forced a reshuffle of the wingers and centres and St Helens could rotate only three replacements.

After seven minutes, a last-tackle kick from Moses Mbye picked out Waqa Blake on the right side. He outjumped Hakim Miloudi, grounded the ball and Mark Perceval made no mistake with the kick; indeed, he was to improve eight of the nine St Helens 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 broke clear to set up Lewis Dodd to dive under the bar.

When the Broncos made a handling error on their own 40, Mbye, after three assists, went over himself for a well-deserved score. Things were in danger of getting horribly out of hand for London, but they strengthened their goal-line defence and were not breached again before half-time, though the video referee did come to London’s aid, ruling out another try, this time deciding there was a double movement by Noah Stephens.

It took 33 minutes for the Broncos to have sniff of the Saints’ try line but they lost ball on the second tackle of a fourth straight set inside the St Helens 20-metre line.

However, the second half started horribly for the Broncos, who were ripped apart by James Bell and Daryl Clark, the latter scoring an eight-minute hat-trick between the 45th and 53rd minutes. Bell did the hard work for the first two of the tries, while Mata’utia, Hurrell and Welsby were the main creators of a thrilling third score which covered 60 metres.

In the 59th minute, Alex Walker made a break – London’s first clean line break of the afternoon – and, faced by Welsby, tried a kick for Miloudi to chase into the left corner. Blake, having shown his attacking talents earlier, now flashed his defensive skills by getting to the ball before 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 full speed – stormed over for the visitors’ eighth try, the one Perceval failed to convert.

With five minutes to go a clever kick from Dodds eluded Lee Kershaw and Perceval touched down in the corner.

With 80 seconds remaining, a powerful break from Jarred Bassett down the left gave London a really good scoring opportunity – Saints coach Paul Wellens praised hooker Clark for his ankle tap to stop Bassett – and they made it pay with Kershaw scoring in the corner and Oli Leyland adding the extras.

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 Jacob Jones. Replacements: 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. Replacement: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

Penalty awarded count: 5–5

Attendance: Est 4,600