“Last time you’ll see London” – Broncos coach makes final IMG dig after Leeds Rhinos loss

In their final home game of the season, London Broncos came ever so close to a perfect send-off but were cruelly denied by a Brodie Croft drop goal as they lost 21-20 to Leeds Rhinos in golden point.

It marked the second time this season that the capital side have lost to Leeds on golden point, with Croft being the man to split the sticks and end the game on both occasions.

“Deja vu. Blinking Brodie Croft, eh?”, was the assessment of Broncos’ head coach Mike Eccles who spoke to the media post-game before delivering a damning statement on the future of London in Super League.

Eccles has been very vocal of late about IMG and the fact that London Broncos effectively had their relegation pre-determined before a ball had been kicked given their lowly ranking on the preliminary grading.

He recently gave the RFL and IMG an ultimatum about whether they do or do not want London Broncos in Super League, and he gave another glum assessment following their most recent loss.

He stated: “We went out on a high but that is the last time you’ll see London in the foreseeable if things stay as they are. It’s been our pleasure to bring Super League back to London.”

London Broncos boss on “frustrating” loss of players

Whilst they’ve only won two games of late, the performances from London Broncos have arguably deserved more and Sunday was no exception with Leeds Rhinos’ Brad Arthur conceding that the better team lost.

As for Mike Eccles, he made clear the team’s goal: “It’s another game against a very good team that we just missed out on that. But it’s done, isn’t it? We’ve got three more to get off the bottom.”

All three of those games will be on the road meaning that London have played their final home game in Super League for a long time, unless there is a major change to the grading rules, however, Eccles felt the team delivered.

“We haven’t got the results and the early part of the season was hard, really hard. I think days like that today were amazing. There was a fantastic crowd, and it was a fantastic day out. I think all the fans have enjoyed coming down.

“It wasn’t a low to go out on, it wasn’t a great game, there were a lot of errors, but it was a highly entertaining game I think.”

Such impressive performances have seen players be picked off from the squad and Eccles was asked about that ‘double-edged sword’ of strong performances meaning more players are picked away, eliciting a blunt response.

“If there’s any left, yeah, I’m over that bit now. I’ve been here a long time, not just in this position, but in other positions and guises, and this happens. It’s frustrating.

“Until you’re in the Super League and you’re at 15 points, you can guarantee it’s always going to be hard. We were always going to be fighting them off from the very start weren’t we?

“I’m over that side of it now, it is what it is. I just wanted to see it out with a good performance, we got a reasonable performance and nearly got a win. But I think it was a great event either way.”