Wildcats hit cruise control to pile on misery for Broncos

London Broncos sank to the foot of the Stobart Super League after going down to a seventh consecutive defeat with an insipid display against Wakefield.

The Broncos, whose disappointing performances prompted a mid-season review by chairman David Hughes, hit rock-bottom after fellow strugglers Widnes pulled off a surprise 26-22 win over Huddersfield.

Wakefield were hardly tested as they atoned for a 36-0 defeat at London in March and were 22-0 up before having their line breached for the only time in the game just after the hour.

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The Londoners made life difficult for themselves by conceding five penalties inside the first 15 minutes and, other than occasional glimpses of the talent of exciting winger Keiran Dixon, were a sorry-looking bunch.

They certainly had nobody with the power of prop Kyle Amor and veteran New Zealand second rower Ali Lauitiiti, who destroyed the visitors almost single-handedly in the first half.

The former Leeds favourite put centre left Vince Mellars through a gap in the visitors’ defence for the opening try on five minutes and romped over himself on 28 minutes, leaving a trail of London defenders in his wake.

Right centre Dean Collis also touched down, finishing off a flowing move, and former London stand-off Paul Sykes kicked three goals to put the Wildcats into an 18-0 half-time lead.

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The Broncos lacked ideas on attack, even before stand-off Michael Witt went off with a shoulder injury after being trampled on by Lauitiiti, and paid the price for some indiscipline and indifferent defence.

They were down to 12 men on 50 minutes when winger Michael Robertson was sin-binned by referee Tim Roby for delaying a Wakefield re-start and Wakefield instantly took advantage, with loose forward Danny Washbrook getting second rower Danny Kirmond over for a fourth try.

An evening up of the penalty count enabled London to keep the score in check, without threatening the Wildcats’ stranglehold on a disappointing game played in constant drizzle.

London prop Scott Wheeldon took hooker Chad Randall’s pass to cross for a consolation try, to which Shane Rodney added the goal, before Sykes kicked a second penalty to stretch the Wildcats’ lead.

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“I don’t think it was ever going to be spectacular given the trying and testing conditions,” said Agar. “But we started the game really well and I thought we played some good rugby in the conditions.

“It showed we can grind a win out. We haven’t done that much this year.

“Most of their best chances came on kick plays and I thought Peter Fox took some very good balls in testing conditions under pressure. He looked very confident.

“We’ve got some disappointment that we didn’t nil them and I thought we could have got a little bit more impact from our bench players but overall we had some good and consistent individuals.”

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London Broncos coach Rob Powell immediately set his sights on Saturday’s basement battle with Widnes.

“It’s not where we want to be or where we set out to be at the start of the year,” said Powell.

“We play Widnes next week so it becomes a massive game. We need to win. They will come with confidence now, having won that game.

“We’ve got to look forward and start playing better.”

“They’re a good group and they train hard.

“If we played like we trained we’d be great but it doesn’t work like that.

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“We go onto the field and we start doing things we haven’t been doing in training. It’s something we’ve got to address. We have to stick to what we’ve been doing really well in the week.

“I thought when we kicked the ball straight from the scrum on play one, the first time we’d had the ball, down their end it changed the momentum of the game.

“It gave Wakefield too much of a leg up for the first 20 minutes. I think moments like that define periods of games and I think it happened today.”

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats: Mathers, Fox, Collis, Mellars, Cockayne, Sykes, Smith, Amor, Aiton, Raleigh, Lauitiiti, Kirmond, Washbrook. Substitutes: Wood, Mariano, Southern, Wilkes.

London Broncos: Dorn, Dixon, Howell, O’Callaghan, Robertson, Witt, Gower, Kaufusi, Randall, Wheeldon, Rodney, Melling, Bailey. Substitutes: Bryant, Clubb, Sarginson, B. Bolger.

Referee: T Roby (RFL).

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