Superb Saints spoil London Broncos’ homecoming at the Twickenham Stoop
For the first time since 17th August 2013, the London Broncos returned to the Twickenham Stoop, which was such a familiar home once. The reunion was not a particularly pleasant one for London however, as they were defeated 52-6 by St Helens in their Super League clash.
The last time they played St Helens at the Stoop back in 2013, London managed to secure a 21-14 victory, but it wasn’t to be this time out.
Saints opened the scoring eight minutes in as a looped kick from Moses Mbye into the corner was missed by Broncos’ Miloudi and gratefully grasped by Waqa Blake to dot down.
Blake was in again eight minutes later down the right flank after a delightful miss two pass from Mbye broke the Broncos line, which Blake finished off with superb dive into the corner. Percival’s kicking from the tee was impeccable to give Saints a 12-0 lead.
Broncos were carved apart just a minute later as Mbye made a breakaway off a scintillating inside step, then fed in Sione Mata’utia who just could not be felled, and one offload later they were in through Lewis Dodd under the posts.
The tries kept coming for Saints and this time it was double provider turned scorer Mbye, whose sensational half was epitomised by his unwavering drive to get over the line despite two tacklers in his way.
With a 24-point lead at the interval, St Helens refused to rest on their laurels as they returned for the second half, with their hooker Daryl Clark scoring an all too easy eight-minute hat-trick.
Through clinical and devastating play, Saints tore Broncos apart in similar fashion three times in a row, with Clark making support runs off each breakaway to score with ease, to the absolute delight of the Saints fans in the North Stand.
Konrad Hurrell rubbed salt in the wounds for the Broncos with 70 minutes on the clock as he bulldozed over the line for Saints’ eighth try of the day. Percival couldn’t make it eight from eight off the tee however, as his conversion rattled off the post.
Saints were not finished as they sought out a 50+ point whitewash, which they thought they had achieved through Percival, who dotted down off a delightful kick in behind the line from Dodd.
Despite being bruised and battered, Mike Eccles’ men never gave up, and managed to avoid the whitewash in the last minute through a Lee Kershaw try, as he latched onto a low drilled kick cross-field from Meadows in the right-hand corner. Oli Leyland converted impressively to leave the final score 6-52.
