In recent weeks it was conceivable to believe that London were invincible and certainly on cloud 9 after marvellous victories over Wigan, Wakefield and Widnes, however with a in form Hull side coming to the fortress there was a chance our unbeaten home record could vanish in 80 minutes. As we were to find out it didn’t turn out to be a Good Friday to remember for the Broncos and Leeds once again showed they were the invincible team to beat thrashing a rampant Bradford side 40-12.
As the sun shone brightly for the first time on Griffin Park this season, so did a bright London side, forcing Hull to knock on their 20 metre line. From the resulting set of 6 London continued the flowing rugby they have shown all season with Nick Bradley-Qalilawa crossing in the corner for his 3rd try in 2 games, after just 2 minutes. Sykes was unlucky in the conversion, although if NBQ keeps scoring in the corner he’s certainly going to get a lot of practice. Tony Rea couldn’t have asked for a better start, however; I guarantee he didn’t know London were going to add an extra 6 even before the game was 10 minutes old.
It was again from the Hull 20 with Luke Dorn throwing a huge dummy to split the Hull defence and go under the sticks. Sykes duly converted. Up to this point Hull were asleep, they were still on the coach, and I must admit I was thinking this could be another fantastic win for the Broncos. Saying that I should’ve known better that someone like John Kear and a team like Hull were never going to lose lying down. Indeed after this try Hull woke up and two tries followed, from Raynor and Kirk Yeaman, to leave the score at 10 all.
The tries didn’t come from the run of play at all; Hull had applied a lot of pressure to the Broncos line and like against Widnes the Broncos defence didn’t look tight at all. However they also had themselves to blame with them frequently coughing up possession through knock ons or over ambitious moves. This was summed up 20 minutes in when London were awarded a penalty on the Hull 40 metre line. Many thought this was the opportunity London needed to relive the immense pressure Hull had placed on us, literally giving us no space. However; it turned out to be the huge turning point in the first half and in my opinion ultimately lost us the game. Instead of kicking to the corner and getting our heavyweights to push it up there, Thomas Leuluai decided to go for the kick tap. However he gave what can only be described as a stupid pass to Lee Hopkins who was a good yard in front of the ball to cough up possession. It certainly was poor considering the form both of these guys had been in. It did kind of sum up Leuluai’s today who didn’t play well, but then in fairness he was shut down well by a strong Hull defence.
In the last 20 minutes London were no where to be seen with Hull dictating everything. A score was bound to follow and it did in the shape of Stephen Kearney. It was all Hull deserved for all their hard work and in the remaining 13 minutes of the half every Bronco fan was either having a go at the ref or praying that we didn’t concede any more points. Hull were unlucky not to go in to the hall time interval even more in front. They didn’t through a desperate London defense in which Jon Wells and Paul Sykes both made interceptions, and through there own mistakes. On another day this could have cost Hull dear.
Before the hooter went for half time, London did get down to Hulls line, with Tookey picking up a loose ball to go over from all of 20 centimeters. However, referee Lawton didn’t give it as London knocked on in to the build up of the try.
Half time couldn’t arrive soon enough for the Broncos, who for the first time this season were under pressure and not clicking as a team. Being 16-10 down it was always going to be a tough job stopping these two points going back to Hull. It didn’t help with some strange and controversial decisions by the referee which only made matters worse, especially in the second half.
Any hope we had that London were going to be a different team when they re entered the pitch were soon dashed when from the kick off London allowed the ball to bounce and Hull picked up the ball. Anyone who knows even the slightest bit about rugby league this is one of the worse sins in rugby and London were punished with Hull scoring a penalty through Danny Brough. Hull should never have had the chance to score; it was only through sloppy play by the Broncos. It was like they had come in to the game thinking they were going to win it and when this didn’t go to plan their heads started to fall. The penalty also meant London had to score twice and a victory soon to drift away. Matters were made worse when NBQ went from hero to villain gifting Hull a drop out after a moment of madness. Putting even more pressure on a shaky London defense. Without picking on NBQ too much, to me and some others I think it has shown that whilst he is great going forward, defending he is not so good at and possibly needs to work on it. He made some silly mistakes against Widnes and the same happened today. It wasn’t just him however. Another person who springs to mind was Lucky, who I feel has had a terrible week. He didn’t play well last week and this week he was far too shallow and meant Hull had lots of space to attack.
By this time Lawton was getting slack almost constantly. Now, I am going to be slightly bias but it did seem he was been unfair and inconsistent. Saying that it is no secret that if your going forward you get the rub of the green and London certainly weren’t going forward they lacked all direction.
Hull then made a break away down the far flank and the two Lee’s (Greenwood and Hopkins) raced back to catch the Hull player meters from the line. Greenwood in my opinion was controversially sin binned for a professional foul as the rest of the team raced back. Considering how London had been playing, this probably could’ve and probably should’ve been curtains, but London don’t do things in the orthodox way, and how the Hopkins/Leuluai blunder changed the game in the first half so did this. It gave London a new spring in their step, they game together and things started to click.
The tables were literally turned as London started applying the pressure hoping to show their true worth and coming back to win the game. London kept pushing and with McLinden back off the bench (God knows why he was on there for so long) things happened and with great link up play with the backs set up Joe Mbu who went over, only for Lawton to judge he was held up. It wasn’t long before London soon crossed the white wash again with Lee Greenwood back on the field; it was NBQ trying to make amends however again it was disallowed with the touch judge deciding he was pushed out in the corner. It backed up the case even more for video refs to be at every game, but more importantly it summed up today and showed it wasn’t going to be our day.
It was a frantic last 10 minutes, with Dorn and McLinden trying every trick in the book to cross the white wash. However, they just couldn’t penetrate the Hull defense that was until the 75 minute, when Joe Mbu who had worked tirelessly in the game crossed the whitewash for the second time and this time it was given and with Sykes converting it set up an exciting last 5 minutes. London were all over Hull, trying to grab 4 points just to tie the game. London would have been happy with a point after playing so badly at points in the game. Memories of 2002 when Dennis Moran crossed with seconds to go came back and I know I was hoping someone could repeat this feat. However it just wasn’t to be, as the hooter went with London losing 20-16.
To be fair if London had come out with anything they wouldn’t have deserved it, they played badly today and maybe this was what they needed to keep their feet back on the ground. You have to take your hat off to Hull and John Kear who knew coming to Griffin Park wasn’t going to be easy and they proved they are going to be up there after getting two points today, they applied a lot of pressure and London didn’t know what to do. Let’s just hope London bounce back with a win against Leigh on Monday.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bad; London must take heart how they played during and after Greenwoods sin binning. There were some brilliant performances by McLinden, Dorn, Sykes, Mbu and Jon Wells who played a lot of the second half at second row.
The season isn’t over by a long way, our unbeaten home record might be, but even the best fall at some point and I will be surprised if London don’t finish in the top 6.
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