London Broncos facing ‘almighty rebuild’ as Mike Eccles discusses Super League future

London Broncos head coach Mike Eccles has reflected on his side’s season in Super League, after finishing bottom was confirmed.

A heavy 54-0 defeat at the hands of Warrington Wolves on Friday left them finishing at the bottom of the pile as Hull FC managed push Catalans Dragons a lot closer expected.

With relegation an inevitability ahead of the year due to IMG’s provisional grading, a weaker squad on paper was formed, without recognised Super League names and with three wins ensuring they picked up six points.

On this, after the game against Warrington, Mike Eccles said: “It’s difficult isn’t it, we’re obviously naturally disappointed but it’s understanding what this season was to us, that doesn’t define our season tonight at all, our season is.

“What those players have done and what they’ve delivered is they’ve given great credibility to a competition that took away their hope from day one.

“They weren’t passengers, they actually added value to the competition. It’s an amazing story. We finished bottom, we won three games, we were terrible in our last outing, but that’s our story.”

London Broncos and IMG

Although many have called on the RFL to save London from relegation, Eccles admitted: “They’re not going to reconsider and what I respect is that having conversations with them is that they’re standing firm with their principles and what they’ve put in place.

“I don’t agree with it. I think they’ve identified that London is key, but yet, stuck stringently to the guidelines and I think this opportunity stood up and smacked them in the face.

“They’re standing firm, they’ve sorted out with the IMG where they’re going, they’ve done a lot of research into how things should look and they’re standing very firm.”

He also addressed a common criticism of London rugby league, insisting: “People have said we’ve been going for 40 years, but we’re there now, we’re sustainable, we’re doing it.

“If you could just build on that now you are probably going to have the London that we have all hoped for.”

Asked whether it was the last time we would see the Broncos in Super League, he responded: “I hope not. I hope not but there is an almighty rebuild going to have to take place.”