Betfred Super League Round 7: Hull KR vs London Broncos Match Summary

However, it can be argued that the moment which the try was scored, the fun stopped for London. Leyland begins by missing the conversion from the try and then making a huge mistake off kick off, gifting the home side a goal line dropout. Leyland then kicks short from the dropout and, despite Macani’s best attempts to try and salvage the ball for London, he comes up short and Matt Parcell runs the ball over the London try line uncontested for KR’s first try of the night, which was converted by Mikey Lewis in the sixth minute of the game.

From this point, aside from an excellent Jimmy Meadows break and ball recovery in the 10^th minute for the Broncos, it all went sharply downhill for the away side.

From the impressive break and ball recovery, Meadows attempts to put a chip kick through for Storey & Boafo to chase on London’s 4^th attempt about 15m outside of KR’s try-line which, unfortunately for him, goes straight into the hands of Mikey Lewis who runs the ball about 50m and perhaps out of  fatigue and/or ill-discipline, London gifts KR two repeat sets of six. However, on this occasion London got lucky, as Minchella knocks the ball on about 5m outside of London’s tryline but this whole pattern of play can be considered foreshadowing for what was to come before the half time whistle blew.

The try’s began raining in for KR in the 18^th minute of the first half as James Batchelor scored his first try of the evening, followed by another try scored by Kelepi Tanginoa in the 23^rd minute, both converted by Mikey Lewis.

Despite the Broncos’ attempts to change things up with a double interchange in the 25^th minute (Parata & Kennedy off, Makin & Butler on) it didn’t appear to make any kind of real difference for the travelling side as Ryan Hall scored his try in the 28^th minute followed by a try by Mikey Lewis in the 31^st minute, Matt Parecel’s second try in the 33^rd minute & Peter Hiku touching down in the 36^th minute.

Much to the relief of the Broncos, the referee shortly blew the half time whistle after Hiku’s try, giving them the opportunity to get themselves together ahead of the second 40. The halftime score was Hull KR 40-London Broncos 4 due to the seven try’s scored by the Robin’s and six conversions slotted by Mikey Lewis who, all credit to him, had a seriously impressive first half.

As the player’s came out to begin the second half, there was certainly the nervous feeling in the back of the mind as a London supporter, anxiously hoping that they would be able to leave Craven Park was something to positively reflect upon, and there is definitely a case to be made that London can leave Hull with their heads held (half) high after their second half performance.

For the first ten minutes of the second half, two separate incorrect plays of the ball led to two Broncos scrums in good field position but, unfortunately, they could not convert their opportunities into points and they paid the price as in the 50^th minute, Hiku made an excellent break through the middle and offloaded to Batchelor to run the ball in for his second try of the evening.

From this point, it appeared as though London’s worst fears of a second half blowout were going to come true as an incorrect play of the ball by Macani led to a dangerous KR attack which was held up over the line by the Broncos. However, in the 58^th minute, London managed to turn things around as a loose ball was picked up by Leyland and gifted on a plate to Macani who used his lighting quick pace to get over the line and score his 100^th career try and with the conversion by Leyland, the score was 44-10 with 20 minutes to play.