It’s fourteen years since a London side (the then Harlequins) beat the Catalans Dragons in the nation’s capital and the bookies believed that the losing streak would continue in 2024 as they handicapped the visitors by twenty-four points, expecting a one-sided game.
A win for the Dragons would put them up to fourth in the table, on points difference, but the London fans making their way into the Cherry Red Records Stadium hoped that this might be the second league victory of the season for their side who have shown marked improvement in recent weeks.
Surely this wouldn’t be the round that London got their second win.
The London Broncos set their stall out early and played the opening ten minutes of the game inside the Dragons half. The Dragons had their opportunities, but handling mistakes handed the initiative back to the home side.
The Dragons poked and prodded the Broncos defence, but it held firm and the home side would then hit on the counter attack, but neither side had any real scoring chances as the defences took charge.
It was an engaging arm wrestle between two sides who were equally matched for the opening thirty-six, not the one-sided affair that most feared before kick-off. The Broncos opened the scoring through Jacob Jones after turning down a two-point penalty and running the ball. Jones took a short pass, went to ground after an ankle tap, and regained his feet to dive over. Oli Leyland added the conversion for a 6-0 half time lead to the Broncos.
A brilliant tackle from Josh Rourke knocked Fouad Yaha into touch as he went for the line within the opening minute of the second half to further frustrate the Dragons.
On forty-four Alrix Da Costa crossed the line but was held up in goal, it was a Dragons onslaught and felt like only a matter of time before the Dragons opened their account.
With London a man down after a green card, Jarrod Wallace crashed through the London defence to score under the sticks allowing the Arthur Mourgue conversion to level the scores at 6-6 with just over twenty minutes of the game remaining.
Just after the hour mark Leyland broke the line before being tackled and offloading to Jarrod Bassett who ran through twenty metres of open space to score. Leyland smashed the conversion between the uprights and after just three minutes, the six-point lead was re-established.
A tremendous last ditch Sam Tomkins tackle denied Sadiq Adebiyi on sixty-two as he got himself under the ball to prevent the grounding.
A Leyland 40-20 on sixty-eight put the Broncos on the front foot again, the belief was growing that the home side were going to secure an upset. The Dragons quickly turned defence into attack as they hunted the equalising try. With seventy-one on the click Yaha caught a palm back off a Tomkins cross-field kick. Mourgue was wide with his conversion attempt from the left touchline, a narrow lead still for the Broncos, and a crucial miss.
The Dragons threw everything that they had at the London defence in the dying minutes but London held firm and ran down the clock to a famous win. It's a second victory of the season and one which was well deserved against a Catalans side who are showing some frailty as the season approaches its crucial period. Congratulations to the Broncos on a dogged performance.
London Broncos: Rourke, Kershaw, Natoli, Bassett (T), Miloudi, Leyland (2/2 G), Campagnalo, Stock, Davis, Kennedy, Lovell, Adebiyi, Parata. Subs: Jones (T), Butler, Tison, Storey. 18th Man: Hughes.
Catalans Dragons: Tomkins, Davies, Aispuro-Bichet, Laguerre, Yaha (T), Fages, Mourgue (1/2 G), Navarrete, Da Costa, Sironen, Séguier, Garcia. Subs: Rougé, Dezaria, Satae, Wallace (T). 18th Man: Maria.
Half-Time: 6-0.
Full-Time: 12-10.
Score Progression: 4-0, 6-0 :HT: 6-4, 6-6, 10-6, 12-6, 12-10 :FT.
Lead Exchanges: London – Square - London.
Referee: James Vella.
