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
ANNOUNCEMENT: Sheffield Eagles match moved to Rosslyn Park FC London Broncos can confirm that the upcoming match with Sheffield Eagles on May 11th will now take place at Rosslyn Park FC. The decision has been made due to the uncertainty of the availability around The Cherry Red Records stadium with AFC Wimbledon potentially in play-off action on this date. Despite no current game definitely taking place on this date we have decided to make the decision now to avoid any late changes and allow fans from both teams to arrange necessary travel arrangements. The venue of the club's training ground at Rosslyn Park FC has been chosen to host this fixture due to its familiarity to supporters and players and therefore retaining home advantage. Rosslyn Park FC was the Club’s home ground during the 2021 season and has since been used to host fixtures for the London Broncos Women and the men’s Challenge Cup & 1895 Cup fixtures.
SULLIVAN SHIELD MATCH The 5th John Sullivan Trophy will take place on Saturday, May 24th at Harpenden Rugby Club. The game takes place in memory of former London Broncos academy player John Sullivan who tragically took his own life in 2014. The event aims to raise awareness of the issue of young male suicide and the importance of mental health more generally, in addition to raising funds for the Sullivan family’s chosen charity CALM – the Campaign Against Living Miserably .
IT'S GAMEWEEK!! London Broncos return to The Cherry Red Records Stadium on Saturday as we welcome York Knights to SW17 for Round 9 of the 2025 Championship campaign. The Broncos, who lost their first home league game of the season, in the previous home game against Batley will be looking to right those wrongs with a much needed win. The visitors currently sit in 6th place in the league table following 4 wins and 4 defeats from their opening 8 games. The game will take place on Saturday with a 5pm kick off with gates opening at 3pm. Ticket information and details can be found below.
Paul Sykes breaks another record! London Broncos all-time record points scorer Paul Sykes has become the first player in history to play in 27 consecutive seasons – and according to the Rugby League Record Keepers Club, that’s a new record. Sykes, who will turn 44 in August and was a member of the England squad for the 2008 World Cup, made his first competitive appearance of the 2025 season for Dewsbury Rams in Sunday’s Betfred League One fixture against Rochdale Hornets. And the man who previously held that record is Gus Risman, the Welsh Rugby League great who was a founder member of the sport’s Hall of Fame, having come north to play for Salford in 1929, then moved to Cumbria after the War to make more than 300 appearances for Workington Town, leading them to Wembley victory over Featherstone Rovers in the 1952 Challenge Cup Final.
FULL MATCH REPLAY: Halifax Panthers vs London Broncos You can now watch back the full 80 minutes of London Broncos Championship trip to Halifax at The Shay. #WeAreLondon
HIGHLIGHTS: Halifax Panthers vs London Broncos You can now watch the highlights from the Round 8 Championship clash with Halifax Panthers below. #WeAreLondon
MATCH GALLERY: Halifax Panthers vs London Broncos Another tough afternoon on the road for Mike Eccles' side as they lost to Halifax Panthers at The Shay. You can now take a look at the best images from the day below. Credit: Simon Hall #WeAreLondon
MATCH REPORT- HALIFAX PANTHERS 40-12 LONDON BRONCOS It was a difficult afternoon for the Broncos as they were comfortably defeated by a free flowing & confident Halifax Panthers side. Despite the increased effort in the second half, it wasn’t enough to be able to close the gap on the sizeable margin which Halifax had placed on London in the first half. The afternoon began with Alex Walker kicking to Halifax from left to right. Unfortunately, before fans had the chance to settle themselves in their seats, Halifax had already put points on the scoreboard. In the third minute, the Panthers had their first big break of the game through the middle of the field and the ball found itself in the hands of Charlie Graham who was able to score the first try of the afternoon and with Jouffret’s successful conversion, the score became Halifax 6-0 London Broncos. After a five minute period of back and forth play by both sides, which included a powerful Marcus Stock run into the Panthers’ half, the home side struck once more with another break. On this occasion, it was Jouffret who exploited a defensive hole on the left hand side of the pitch and with just the fullback to beat, he was able to pass to James Woodburn-Hall who scored his first try of the afternoon virtually uncontested. A second Jouffret conversion made the score Halifax 12-0 London Broncos after just eight minutes. The third try of the afternoon for the home side came from pure intensity and power. A number of explosive runs by the Panthers forwards through the London defence placed the Broncos in a vulnerable position and Adam O’Brien took advantage of his opportunity by scoring the try on the right hand side of the posts. With the straight forward positioning of the tee, Jouffret was able to add the extras relatively easily, and the score became Halifax 18-0 London Broncos- not a good position to be in just fifteen minutes into the game. Heading into the twentieth minute, the Broncos were the master of their own downfall once more as Tangata utilised his athleticism to not only break through a number of Broncos attempted tackles but then was able to take the ball down the field and pass to Woodburn-Hall who was able to score his second try of the afternoon. Halifax 24-0 London. From this point until the thirtieth minute, it would be a fair assessment to say that Halifax dominated. A confident home side, swiftly moving the ball from one side of the pitch to the other, were able to march the ball down the field. However, with a couple of miscues including an attempted pass which went out of bounds & a couple of dropped balls, allowed the Broncos to keep Halifax at bay. This was the case up until the thirtieth minute, where Calcott was able to find another space in the defence and tucked himself in to score. Halifax 30-0 London. HALF TIME: HALIFAX PANTHERS 30-0 LONDON BRONCOS With the second forty minutes beginning, it was clear to see that London wanted to put right their wrongs of the first half; the team attacked with purpose and with the objective of putting some points of their own on the scoreboard. However, it was clear to see that there was issues with the execution of the Broncos, and mistake after mistake allowed Halifax to overcome the early threat. The next big mistake for the Broncos came after Polselli failed to keep hold of the high kick on the fifth, gifting Halifax a scrum in dangerous position which Tangata then proceeded to take advantage of as he scored the team’s sixth try of the afternoon. Halifax 34-0 London. From here until the sixtieth minute, there was a real spring in the step of London who looked like a different team to who had played in the first half. If you were watching the game, you could make the argument that Bienek being reintroduced to the field was a big factor of this. His powerful line breaks and impressive offload ability marched the Broncos deep into the Halifax half, which was then taken advantage of by Polselli, who exploited a gap in the middle of the park to score London’s first points of the day. Halifax 34-6 London. Just three minutes later, the Broncos found themselves with even more points on the board as Bienek, once again, powered his way through the defence from the restart and offloaded to Adebiyi who was able to drive the ball into the Halifax half. Once the Broncos were on the fifth, the high kick was gathered by Polselli who was able to make the offload to Walker who could score under the posts. A second successful conversion for the visitors made the score Halifax 34-12 London. London seemed like a different side entirely after these two try’s and pushed hard to score a third. However, after multiple penalties against Halifax, Polselli dropped the ball just inches away from the try line and Halifax were able to restore balance to the game. This balance was taken advantage of by Halifax late in the game as Tangata made a massive break down the blindside of the field, shrugging off two Broncos tacklers before eventually being brought down by Alex Walker. Halifax then got the ball to the other side of the field effortlessly, where Charlie Graham was able to score a try and put the icing on the cake for the home side, cementing a solid & convincing victory. FULL TIME: HALIFAX PANTHERS 40-12 LONDON BRONCOS
MATCH PREVIEW: Mike Eccles looks ahead to Halifax trip London Broncos Director of Rugby & Performance Mike Eccles has described the weekend trip to Halifax as the toughest test yet. Halifax are the league leaders after 7 rounds of the Championship season meanwhile the Broncos are still searching for that first away win of the season. Mike has also offered an update on the current injuries within the squad in this weeks match preview. #WeAreLondon
HALF-PRICE ADULT TICKETS! London Broncos are offering half-price adult tickets for the upcoming home game against York Knights on May 3rd (5pm KO). To access this offer simply click the pop-up icon on the REEL below. #WeAreLondon
