Jack Campagnolo talks London Broncos, IMG gradings and his future

It’s no coincidence two of London Broncos’ trio of wins this year have come in their last three matches, since half-back Jack Campagnolo found his feet following a four-month layoff.

The Australian-born, Italy international was sidelined from March until July with a back injury, but has played in Broncos’ last five games and scored in the Magic Weekend win over Hull FC, which came a fortnight after Catalans Dragons were bested at Plough Lane, in Wimbledon.

Broncos remain bottom of the table, but now only on points difference from Hull and, with five games remaining, the Wimbledon-based outfit have a real chance of avoiding Super League’s wooden spoon.

“For myself personally, it was hard adapting after being out so long,” Campagnolo told Serious About Rugby League. “Four or five games in now, I think personally I am adapting to it well and really enjoying it.

“As a team, I think we’ve shown we’ve learned from our mistakes earlier in the year. We’ve got a few troops back and that’s led to what we saw [last week]. We’re competitive in every game now, which is where we wanted to be.”

In previous seasons, the situation at the foot of the table would have set up a tense finale to the campaign as London and Hull battled to avoid the drop. But next year’s league placings will be decided on a ranking system devised by the sport’s strategic partner IMG, based on off-field factors as well as league performance.

Broncos were 24th in last year’s indicative gradings, giving them no chance of staying in the top-flight. That has caused huge controversy, particularly with Hull being graded A, which would guarantee a Super League place, but Campagnolo insisted: “That’s out of our hands.

“As players, all we can do is try and not finish on the bottom and give us the best-case scenario to go on against next year. Small goals is what we are looking for in the short-term; to finish the year nicely with a few wins is what we’re after.

“We’re not looking too far ahead, we’ll look at the last game and at what we can do better and take it one week at a time. We’ve got Leigh [on Sunday] and hopefully we can put another competitive performance together and get over the top of them. We aren’t really looking at our opponents, it’s more about our game and what we can do to fix that.”

Campagnolo joined London in pre-season on a one-year contract, having played all his previous senior rugby in Australia’s Queensland and New South Wales Cups.

“I haven’t got any plans yet,” he said of next year. “I’m talking to my agent and we’ll see where we got from there.

“I’ve been out for a long chunk of this year so I’m just trying to get consistent, then I’ll look to next year. But I’d like to stay [in England], definitely, if an opportunity presents itself. To play rugby league for as long as I can full-time is my goal.”