365 Sporting Days

The weekend has run away with me and I’m writing this in Easter Monday after the Broncos have played at Batley and won, with a final score of Batley 4 Broncos 42, an emphatic win on a busy weekend for rugby league!

The Toulouse game at the Ealing Trailfinders ground was game 1 of 3 for me on Good Friday, roadworks on the A406 meant I arrived 5 minutes into the game, I was pleased to discover I hadn’t missed anything much.  Toulouse had stormed through league 1 in 2016, I’d seen them beat London Skolars heavily with a scoreline of Skolars 12 Toulouse 52, it was clear at that time that this team were going to go up a level at the earliest opportunity.

The match between Broncos and Toulouse was a very different affair.  The Broncos dominated the first half until they forgot to tackle just before half time.  It did however take until the 26th minute for a score to be registered, Jay Pitts touched down for the home team and William Barthau followed up 3 minutes later.

Apirana Pewhairangi converted both giving the home team a 12 point lead, the missing tackles saw Toulouse close that gap to 2 points however as the speedy Gavin Marguerite evaded any would be tacklers to score what was an easy try.  The conversion was missed but Murrad Kriouache had a similarly easy run in to score Toulouse’s 2nd of the day, Mark Kheirallah added the conversion.  In spite of their superior possession the Broncos only took a 2 point lead in at half time.

Mark Kheirallah caught the Broncos by surprise a minute into the 2nd half to put Toulouse into the lead, adding the extras to take Toulouse to 16.  From that point the action went all the way of the home team, Broncos seemed to spot a weakness on the left wing, or took advantage of their strength on that wing with Barthau and Rhys Williams scoring in almost identical spots.  Matt Davis added a 5th try for the Broncos and Pewhairangi who was impressive with the boot converted to give himself a full house.

The final score was London Broncos 30 Toulouse 16 – A good result for the home team.  I note that Toulouse have beaten Hull KR at home today by 14 points to 6 and sit 2nd in the table with 8 wins from their 11 games played so far, will they be heading to the Superleague next?