TEAM NEWS: London Broncos vs Doncaster RLFC

LONDON BRONCOS V HALIFAX PANTHERS (by David Ballheimer) London Broncos (12) 20, Halifax Panthers (6) 14 London Broncos produced an excellent all-round performance to defeat Halifax Panthers and move outside of the bottom two. Backing up last week’s rout of Hunslet, this victory was built on outstanding defence. That said, apart from 15 minutes in the first half and a short while at the beginning of the second, they were the better team on both sides of the ball. The Panthers started very well, aided by a penalty close to the London line. Hooker Adam O’Brien, going from dummy half, sensed a lack of certainty in the Broncos’ defensive line and burst through a large gap and scored the opening try, improved by Jack Hansen. Another repeat set gave Halifax another chance to get over the line but this time, the London defensive line was ready for dummy-half runs and both O’Brien and the much larger Adam Tangata were repelled. In the 11th minute, Connor O’Beirne launched a bomb that came down close to the Halifax line. A Broncos leaper pushed the ball backwards to Alex Walker, who put in a grubber which Luke Polselli almost reached but failed to ground the ball. From the seven-tackle set, Fax went a long way downfield, benefitting from a penalty, too, but the goalline defence was good enough to repel another O’Brien snipe. Halifax, it must be said, were far less of a threat when Tom Inman replaced O’Brien in the No.9 role. Brandon Webster-Mansfield thought he had scored his first try in a London shirt after 18 minutes, but his interception, which did hit the ground, was ruled a knock-on. Webster-Mansfield, however, and team-mates close to the incident, were convinced that the ball had bounced off the centre’s forehead not his hands or arms. The referee and his assistants were not convinced.