Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
The Super League Qualifiers starts here with the first prize, a place in Super League 2019, and a runners up prize of a place in the Million Pound Game, where eighty minutes will decide whether you are in the top flight, or plying your trade in the Championship.
First two teams in the hot seat are Super Leagues bottom side the Widnes Vikings, with just three wins in twenty-three outings against the Championships second placed side who suffered just six losses in their regular season programme.
It was a real blood and thunder battle between two very evenly matched sides for the opening thirty minutes. There seemed to be very little difference between the bottom of the Super League and the top of the Championship but as the game wore on then it was the fitness of the Super League side which should makle a difference.
On the half hour mark Widnes broke the deadlock when Oliver Ashall-Bott took a short pass from Aaron Heremaia to crash over for the four pointer. Krisnan Inu added the conversion for a 6-0 lead.
Both sides had chances before the interval but neither made it over the whitewash. It was a corker of a game but deficient in the points department.
The Broncos drew first blood in the second half after a Rhys Williams break made good ground. Mark Ioane took a short pass to bounce off two attempted tackles and cross to score by the left upright. Jarrod Sammut, on from the subs bench, hit the upright with the conversion attempt.
When there was London interference at the play the ball, a couple of metres from the Broncos line, Widnes opted to take the coaches direction from the stands and Inu slotted over the penalty for an 8-4 lead.
Chris Dean settled the Widnes nerves on fifty-four when he found a gap in the tiring London defence to take advantage after Kieran Dixon had lost the ball in his own twenty as he tried to field a kick. Inu added the goal for a ten point home lead.
London struck back four minutes later thanks to an Apirana Pewhairangi try taking a no-look Eddie Battye pass to dive over. Sammut was able to add the extras this time for 10-14. The game was back on with twenty minutes remaining.
The scores were level on sixty one when Kieron Dixon flew over by the right corner flag after a high kick caused mayhem in the Widnes defence and the Broncos moved the ball wide with an Alex Walker miss-out pass putting the winger over. Sammut was unable to add the extras from the touchline. At 14-14 it was anyones game.
Dixon intercepted a Liam Finn pass on sixty-six and went seventy metres to put his side into the lead. Sammut added the extras for a six point lead as the mood in the Stadium turned against the home side.
With the clock showing seventy-four minutes Krisnan Inu went over after London fumbled a high ball from Liam Finn. The referee was uncertain on the field and the video referee overruled his ‘No Try’ decision to give Widnes a lifeline. Inu converted his own try and the scores were again level, the clock showing four and a half minutes.
London engineered the position for a thirty metre Sammut drop goal with forty seconds remaining to seal the Broncos win as home supporters the ‘boo’s’ rang out around the stadium.
The importance of this win cannot be underestimated for London’s chances of making the top five and it caused heartbreak in the Widnes Vikings camp who now know that they are really up against it, having lost one of their three home games. There will be some head-scratching for Francis Cummins while Danny Ward will be wearing a big smile on his face on the journey back to London.
Vikings: Ashall-Bott (T), Ah Van, Inu (T, 4G), Whitley, Runciman. Mellor, Finn, Houston, Heremaia, Dudson, Dean (T), Hansen, Hauraki. Subs: Olbison, Leulua, Walker, Gubb.
Broncos: Walker, Dixon (2T), Hellewell, Kear, Williams, Pewhairangi (T), Cunningham, Battye, Pelissier, Evans, Hindmarsh, Pitts, Davis . Subs: Sammut (2G, DG), Spencer, Ioane (T), Harrison.
Referee: Liam Moore.
Half-Time: 6-0.
Full-Time: 20-21.
Attendance: 3,432.
