MATCH REPORT: London Broncos 14-16 Batley Bulldogs

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.

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