Win over Warrington was fine achievement for Broncos

 
20 August 2012

Friday night saw a real range of emotions at London Broncos’ victory over Warrington – and thankfully it finished on a high note.

There was a poignant start to the evening as we stood for a minute’s silence in memory of Broncos academy player Jack Brennan who sadly lost his brave battle against cancer recently.

The match was a tribute to him and it ended with Tony Rea getting a deserved standing ovation for leading a fantastic win over the Challenge Cup finalists.

Warrington of course had one eye on Wembley on Saturday, resting six of their key players, but that’s not to take away what a fine achievement it was for London.

They have played well in patches this season but just haven’t been consistent enough. This was them at their best though and I thought Luke Dorn and Craig Gower were magnificent.

Tony has always said that he wouldn’t take the job on permanently but when he was interviewed on Sky after the game, he hesitated a little over the question which made me think that he’s having a few second thoughts.

As far as I am concerned, Tony Rea is Mr London and I think you can see by the standing ovation after the Wolves win that the supporters want him there too.

In a way, the Broncos winning showed just how strong Super League is this season. Tony Smith, the Warrington coach, would have been confident that the group of players he sent out would have been good enough to pick up the win.

But I guess you can’t rest six of your top players and expect to win – no matter which team you are.

I don’t blame Tony Smith though because I know he’s got the Challenge Cup on his mind. I seem to recall the Wolves lost in 2009 the week before the Challenge Cup and they still went on to beat Huddersfield.

It’s getting tight down at the bottom of Super League and no-one will want to finish in that 14th place. Shaun Briscoe, the Widnes full back, pretty much said as much after the game and they picked up a much-needed win against Hull FC.

There are three teams now, London, Castleford and Widnes, all level on 12 points and it will be interesting to see who wins that particular battle.

Much like Warrington, Leeds also lost the week before the Challenge Cup final but I think they have more concerns than the Wolves.

They have already lost Danny McGuire and there are now doubts about whether Rob Burrow will play after missing the weekend defeat against Catalan Dragons.

If you take two quality players out of a line up, you are going to struggle and it showed against the Dragons.

This Saturday is certainly going to be an interesting one and a great spectacle of the sport for Rugby League.

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