MATCH REPORT: London Broncos 14-16 Batley Bulldogs
Jake Watson • 13 April 2025
LONDON BRONCOS V BATLEY BULLDOGS (by David Ballheimer)
London Broncos (6) 14, Batley Bulldogs (6) 16
London Broncos suffered the agony of conceding a last-play try to lose to the Batley Bulldogs. The truth is that London paid the penalty for dominating large parts of the game, especially the early part of the second half, but wasted great attacking positions with sloppy passes, poor run options or ineffective kicks.
This is not the Bulldogs’ first two-point win over the Broncos, not even the first on 12 April because, 44 years ago – my first ever away game as a fan – the Londoners lost 10–8 to the Gallant Youths at Mount Pleasant. There were five tries at the Cherry Red, four more than I witnessed a week before Easter 1981.
In fact, it took barely four minutes for the first four-pointer (and it was a three-pointer in 1981!). An overcooked last-tackle kick from London gave Batley a seven-tackle set from their 20 and they didn’t need all of them as Jack Render cut inside from the right wing to touch down and make Josh Woods’ conversion easier.
Batley nearly made it back-to-back scores, aided by a penalty, but the diagonal kick was knocked on in goal. The Broncos then had a repeat set near to the Bulldogs’ posts, but a shepherd gave Batley the ball back. Two brilliant tackles by Alex Walker then stopped great try-scoring chances for the Bulldogs. One of those runs was called back for a penalty, and Batley tried to extend their lead with a 35-metre penalty, but Woods curled his kick wide of the right post.
At the other end, Walker leapt high to grab a bomb from Luke Polselli and although he just about won the contest, he never really had clean control of the ball.
Twelve minutes before half-time, London, enterprisingly trying to bring the ball away from their 10-metre line, threw a pass that went into touch, giving Batley the shortest of fields from where to start a possession, but the Broncos’ defence held out superbly.
The scores were levelled on the stroke of half-time when a hand in a Broncos pass gave them seven more tackles –technically a Batley knock-on – and Sadiq Adebiyi drove right to the Bulldogs line before being stopped. London moved the ball to the right and skipper Will Lovell strolled through a big hole in the Batley defence to score close enough to the posts for Chris Hellec to add the extras.
The Broncos started the second half very strongly with a good defensive set and then powerful runs right to the Batley line, but both Huw Worthington and Polselli were ruled held up in goal, a decision the former thought was unfair on him as he felt he had grounded the ball.
Aaron Small suffered a facial injury which led to his replacement by Lewis Bienik and the big prop, not playing left centre, made two barn-storming runs, the second of which saw him crash over the line to give the Broncos their first lead of the evening.
The lead lasted less than five minutes as after conceding a penalty on half-way, London had to defend another short field and Woods skipped through a hole to touch down and convert his own score.
With 10 minutes to go, Walker was brought down by a high tackle 10 metres from the Batley line, but Hellec missed the presentable kick. The Bulldogs then had a chance to win it with a Woods drop goal, but he hit the right post and Adebiyi caught the rebound cleanly.
In the 77th minute, another high shot, this time on Polselli, 40 metres out. London could have kicked for the corner and tried to score a try, but the Batley defence had been very solid. Instead, the ball was given to Hellec with a second chance to kick the two points and, this time, he made no mistake.
The Broncos, realistically, needed only to gather the kick-off, keep the ball for the full set and kick to touch inside the Bulldogs 20-metre area. Having taken a minute off the clock with the penalty goal, the possession would have taken almost another minute, and Batley would have had probably only two plays to go 80–90 metres.
The Bulldogs won the restart, Woods’ perfectly-weighted kick going about 11 metres. The Broncos’ defence was as desperate as Batley’s attack, for obviously different reasons. But Woods, at the hub of all of the Bulldogs’ best movements, drew in a couple of tacklers before flicking the ball to Joe Burton. He was able to get the ball out to Alfie Dean, hugging the left sideline. He beat the last tackler and touched down in the corner.
Moments later, the hooter sounded, London players sank to their knees in exhaustion and misery while Batley’s men celebrated a much-needed victory. Woods’ kick didn’t trouble the touch-judges, but it didn’t matter.
London Broncos: 1 Alex Walker, 2 Chris Hellec, 21 Chris Ball, 20 Aaron Small, 5 Liam Tindall, 6, Luke Polselli, 28 Jenson Binks, 18 Ben Hursey-Hord 9 Curtis Davies, 10 Lewis Bienek, 11 Will Lovell, 12 Sadiq Adebiyi, 13 Marcus Stock. Replacements 8 Huw Worthington, 17, Jensen Monk, 22 Matt Ross, 23 Sam Winney. 18th man: 32 Jamie Hewson.
Tries: Lovell (40), Bienek (50)
Goals: Hellec 3/4
Sin-bin: None
Batley Bulldogs: 1 Robbie Butterworth, 19 Jack Render, 25 Jayden Myers, 2 Joe Burton, 26 Alfie Dean, 6 Ben White, 7 Josh Woods, 8 Adam Gledhill, 23 Jonah Parsons, 13 James Brown, 3 Oliver Greensmith, 37 Cain Staveley, 17 Luke Blake. Replacements: 9 Alistair Leek, 16 Michael Ward, 22 Luka Atkinson, 36 Logan Baylis Brow.18th man: 20 Paul Chitakunye.
Tries: Render (4), Woods (56), Dean (80)
Goals: Woods 2/4
DG: Woods 0/1
Sin-bin: None
Referee: Ryan Cox
HT: 6–6
Penalty awarded count: 7–5
Attendance: TBA
TEAM NEWS: Toulouse Olympique vs London Broncos Here is your starting line-up for this afternoon’s Championship with Toulouse at the Stade Ernest-Wallon. Brandon Webster-Mansfield comes in at centre to make his full debut and Connor O’Beirne returns to the starting line-up following injury. #WeAreLondon
MATCH PREVIEW: Toulouse Olympique vs London Broncos London Broncos head into one of the stand out fixtures of the season on Sunday when they make the trip to the south of France to take on Toulouse Olympique. Not only is it a visit to the side topping the Championship table but it is also the destination of one of the best days in the club's recent history. Securing promotion against Toulouse in 2023 was the last meeting between the two sides but despite the Broncos coming out on top that day it is the French who will be favourites on Sunday. Broncos come into this game on the back of a losing run but shoots of improvements were clear to see in the narrow defeat to Widnes last time out and will be boosted by the squad named. Squad Information Mike Eccles has named the 21-man travelling party for this weekend’s trip to Toulouse as Brandon Webster-Mansfield is named for the first time since arriving. Alongside Webster-Mansfield we also Liam Tindall and Connor O’Beirne return, coming as a huge boost for the squad. Sam Winney also returns to the 21 for the first time since breaking his jaw in the away game at Barrow. Jack Smith who is on dual registration from Leeds Rhinos also joins the group after scoring two tries on his debut for the club against Widnes Vikings. Lewis Bienek remains the only major absentee however it is hoped he will be fit for the next game at Hunslet.
MATCH PREVIEW: Mike Eccles looks ahead to Toulouse trip London Broncos Director of Rugby & Performance Mike Eccles has done his pre-match interview ahead of the trip to Toulouse and has offered a positive update. Liam Tindall and Connor O'Beirne are in contention to play following injuries and Lewis Bienek will hopefully be ready for the next game against Hunslet. Jack Smith, Connor Barley and Kian McDermott and Lukas Mason make up the rest of the squad. Watch the full interview with Mike below. #WeAreLondon
SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT: Toulouse Olympique vs London Broncos Mike Eccles has named the 21-man travelling party for this weekend’s trip to Toulouse as Brandon Webster-Mansfield is named for the first time since arriving. Alongside Webster-Mansfield we also Liam Tindall and Connor O’Beirne return, coming as a huge boost for the squad. Sam Winney also returns to the 21 for the first time since breaking his jaw in the away game at Barrow. Jack Smith who is on dual registration from Leeds Rhinos also joins the group after scoring two tries on his debut for the club against Widnes Vikings. Lewis Bienek remains the only major absentee however it is hoped he will be fit for the next game at Hunslet. #WeAreLondon
TOULOUSE TRAINING GALLERY The final session with the squad before we fly out to Toulouse on Saturday ahead of Sunday's Championship clash at the State Ernest-Wallon. #WeAreLondon
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Who has played for both? Toulouse Olympique & London Broncos It’s pretty common when we do these articles that there are a number of current players playing for the opposition, but perhaps Sheffield Eagles and Toulouse Olympique win the record for the highest number this season. So, before you all guess these five, Toulouse have 5 players in the current squad who have featured for London Broncos; Paul Ulberg, Ollie Ashall-Bott, Greg Richards, Callum Gahan and Rob Butler. Let’s focus on some of the players that no longer don the colours of either side and their history with us both; Rhys Curran An Aussie born French international, Curran spent two seasons at London Broncos before hanging up his boots. Still residing in London you can regularly expect to see Rhys coming down to The Cherry Red Records to support his former teammates. However, he can count a number of the Toulouse players as former teammates as he spent a very fruitful four seasons playing for the club between 2016 and 2019 and prior to that he played in Elite VIII for Villeneuve. Through residency (living for three years in France) Curran would play three times for the French national team in 2018.
FANS FORUM - WHAT WAS SAID? Question: Are we going to change our name from London Broncos? GH: I changed the name at Leeds and I can tell you that at the time it was unpopular. The fans of Leeds didn't want to change names. They said, we don't want all these gimmicky names. We did change, and this is the best thing we ever did. They created a new logo, a new brand, a new identity in many respects, a new mascot, and it's the best thing we ever did. If you ask 99% of the Leeds Rhinos fans now they will say that was a pretty good decision. For us, it is being researched and ultimately no decision has been made and everyone needs to have an opinion and give it to me. It may well be (changed), and I was with a fairly prominent person the other day who came up with a very well-reasoned recommendation as to what the name should be. I thought, well, I never really thought about that, but it was a well-presented argument. We need as many of those as possible. We need to think about it and ultimately make a decision in the best interests of the club. Question: Are you going to share it? (suggestion for new name) GH: Well, since you've asked me the question, I will, yes. I won't give you the name of the person I'm talking to, but he's a very prominent person in the media, he's a Rugby League fan, and he's not an Englishman. But he was saying, in his opinion, the name should be simply London Rugby League. I said to him thank you very much for your suggestion and that it needs to be in the melting pot like all the other suggestions. Question: On behalf of all the long-standing London fans in this room tonight, and I know most of them personally, we've all been together for many years. Can we just thank you for the interest and the commitment you've taken to The Club? Thank you. Honestly, it's created a superb momentum because of someone of your stature being involved in London. So, thank you very much. GH: Well, thank you for that, and I feel very humbled by that and what I don't want to do is make any false promises. I think this is a fascinating journey, but it's a journey that I don't know how long it's going to take. What I do know is it's all based on people's commitments coming together and as I've said several times, I don't have a magic wand. I think my role is to actually galvanise interest and commitment and try and give it an opportunity, manifesting itself for the collective good of the club. That's primarily my role in all of this. And I can see by the attendance tonight that there's a great passion and a great interest and a great commitment as well. So that's a pretty good starting point. So I'm pretty confident that we've got quite a few ingredients in place. It's going to be a tough journey because it's a tough league. The Super League is an incredibly tough competition. The Championship is a terrific competition and it's so competitive. So to make progress we need to be pretty well organised and ready to go. We're ready to go and ready to make progress and my role in all this is to try and actually organise that and make it happen.
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GAMEWEEK: Toulouse vs London Broncos London Broncos move into Round 13 of the Championship this season with an away trip to the league leaders Toulouse Olympique. With it undoubtedly one of the toughest tests of the season so far Mike Eccles will be looking to draw on inspiration from the last visit to Toulouse which saw us beat Sylvain Houles side and secure a place back in Super League. An update from the head coach will come later in the week but fans will be hoping to hear good news on the injury front with a number of key players closing in on a return to action.
