2005 Season Reports: SL LONDON BRONCOS 70 LEIGH CENTURIONS 16

LONDON BRONCOS 70

LEIGH CENTURIONS 16
By Dave Parkinson.

Prior to their visit to the capital, Leigh felt they had realistic hopes of claiming their first engage Super League double but those lay in tatters after London Broncos cut loose to score a dozen tries and an embarrassingly easy win.

It was the Centurions heaviest defeat for a decade and coach Darren Abram was at a loss to explain what had happened following a solid week of preparation and an overnight stop.

“We were very poor today and if I knew why I could earn myself a lot of money.” He said. “And to be honest it was the whole performance that disappointed me the most.”

Of the players on display only hard working Matt Sturm and the commitment of Steve Maden shone through. The others were a pale shadow of the team that had performed so well at Headingley last week.

The rout started in routine fashion when former Whitehaven player Rob Purdham ran into a huge hole and finished virtually unopposed from thirty metres for the first of four tries. Sykes added the first of 11 goals and the Broncos were away but Leigh shocked their hosts with two well worked tries in three minutes after losing Dom Feaunati to injury.

Phil Jones scored the first after Robbie Mears ducked a tackle in midfield and sent a timed pass for his centre to cross in the corner. Despite this set-back Leigh edged in front with a fine try. John Duffy looped a pass inside, John Wilshere broke then Ben Cooper supported for Neil Turley to make it 10-6. That was as good as it got for Leigh.

Cooper’s try seemed to shake the Broncos into action and they ruthlessly exposed the Centurions defensive frailties. A classy try from Mark McLinden restored the hosts advantage before Dave Highton, a one time loan capture for the Centurions finished off great work from Lee Hopkins.

Leigh battled away manfully until the 30th minute, then gave up!

Exciting play from the Broncos delighted their fans and Purdham completed his hat-trick with two tries in three minutes before McLinden again made the most of Hopkins play to score a second try right on half-time.

The Centurions needed the first score of the second half and Wilshere broke only to find an alarming lack of support. London then showed the visitors how to do it, going the length of the field in a set of six before Thomas Leualai juggled and crossed under the posts. Three further tries followed in another 10 minute purple patch and the Broncos were 60-10 clear after 56 minutes. McLinden put Purham over for his 4th on 46 minutes before New Zealand test star Leuluai ran in two more tries to claim his own hat-trick.

Leigh were becoming increasingly frustrated by their own performance and after the impressive Sykes claimed a try of his own following particularly weak defence, Craig Stapleton and Highton traded punches and the pair were sent to the sin-bin by referee Ben Thaler.

Luke Dorn scored the Broncos 12th and last try following a break from Danny Williams and although John Duffy pulled a try back in the last minute, it was scant consolation for the travelling Coliseum faithful who frankly deserved better from their charges.

BRONCOS:
6 Mark McLinden
2 Jon Wells
1 PaulSykes
4 Mark O’Halloran
3 Nick Bradley-Qalilawa
21 Luke Dorn
7 Thomas Leuluai
18 Anthony Armour
19 Paul Highton
17 Mark Tookey
11 Lee Hopkins
13 Rob Purdham
16 Joe Mbu
SUBS
11 Soloman Haumono
14 Danny Williams
20 Filimone Lolohea
30 Feliti Mateo

Tries: Purdham 4, Leuluai 3, McLinden 2, Sykes, Dorn
Goals: Sykes 11/12.

CENTURIONS:

24 John Wilshere
14 Steve Maden
1 Ben Cooper
9 Phil Jones
27 Dom Feaunati
10 Jason Kent
2 John Duffy
4 Darren Fleary
32 Robbie Mears
31 Warren Stevens
20 Craig Stapleton
11 James King
13 Mark Leafa
SUBS
15 Richard Marshall
18 Paul Rowley
21 Matt Sturm
22 Neil Turley

Tries: Jones, Cooper, Duffy

Goals: Turley 2/3

Attendance: 3,522 @ Griffin Park, Brentford.