London Broncos 42 Wakefield Trinity 34: ‘Woeful’ Wakefield suffer as Jordan Abdull runs in four tries

Jordan Abdull crossed for four first-half tries as the Broncos came storming out of the blocks against the team they beat in the opening round of the season.

Midway through the second half they led 42-6 and appeared set for just their fourth league win of the season.

However, David Fifita and Mason Caton-Brown both bagged doubles late on as Wakefield roared back – and in the end Danny Ward’s side had to cling on.

Wakefield made the Challenge Cup quarter-finals last time out but this was a defeat that left Chester fuming.

He said: “Our ball control was woeful, we just had too many guys that didn’t want to get on the ground, too many that wanted to take a few short-cuts in terms of third man in the tackle, we got burned by a much better team today.

“Collectively we’ve just got to take it on the chin, I’ll take some responsibility for some of the changes that we made - but I won’t take responsibility for the desire levels that some individuals had out there.

“We said at half-time if they don’t score again we’ll win the game, but after Kieran Dixon runs it up the sideline that’s game over.

“There are no positives today, I feel sorry for the people that turned up to watch that, I don’t want to take anything away from London, I thought they were very good - but we were woeful today.”

Abdull got proceedings going by selling a perfect dummy and slicing through to finish under the posts. They pushed their lead to 10-0 moments later with Rhys Williams sprinting to the corner.

Then Abdul took over, running in three more tries for the hosts.

Wakefield eventually got themselves on the scoreboard when Kyle Wood latched on to a grubber kick through. Ryan Hampshire got the extras to leave the visitors trailing 26-6 going into half time.

Dixon raced into to the corner to score London’s sixth try of the afternoon before grabbing the ball and sprinting the length of the pitch to score and push their lead to 30 after he added his own conversion.

Minutes later, Abdull’s kicked through to Jay Pitts who tapped the ball down for Williams to get his second of the afternoon.

Wakefield suddenly managed to get some energy in their legs and finished with five tries in the final 15 minutes of the game. First Fifita bulldozed his way through three Broncos defenders before touching down, Caton-Brown finished off in the corner with Fifita adding another under the posts, and Caton-Brown finishing.

Hampshire managed to get a try of his own to add to his five goals but it was too little too late as the home side just about held on for victory.

London Broncos: Walker, Dixon, Morgan, Kear, Williams, Abdull, Smith, Battye, Cunningham, Butler, Pitts, Lovell, Yates. Substitutes: Pelissier, Richards, Gee, Adebiyi.

Wakefield Trinity: Hampshire, Jones-Bishop, Lyne, J. Sa’u, Caton-Brown, Reynolds, Miller, Fifita, Randell, Hirst, Batchelor, Horo, Crowther. Substitutes: Kirmond, Kopczak, King, Wood.

Referee: L Moore (RFL)