London Broncos land biggest shock of the Super League season

Catalans Dragons suffered an embarrassing defeat as London Broncos landed the biggest upset of the Super League season to win 12-10 against last year’s Grand Finalists.

London Broncos had won just one game all season heading into the game with that victory over Hull FC coming all the way back in Round 11 when they defeated the Black and Whites 34-18 in a really impressive performance.

They had come close in other games with their Round Two loss to Hull FC being the result of a last-minute try, whilst they have also pushed Salford close and lost 17-16 to Leeds Rhinos in golden point.

Returning to Plough Lane for the first time since early July, London Broncos put in a brilliant first-half performance to lead 6-0 at the break against the sixth-placed Catalans, causing plenty of worry for Steve McNamara.

London Broncos land huge Super League shock

The first 25 minutes saw London Broncos with the majority of the ball and they were probably unlucky not to score more but they finally broke the deadlock in the 37th minute through Jacob Jones who crashed over.

Catalans clearly had an earful from Steve McNamara at halftime as they came out like a completely different side and they had two efforts correctly not given by James Vella before being confirmed by video referee Ben Thaler.

The pressure continued from the French side with Sam Tomkins taking control and helping Catalans earn brilliant territory. From there, recent NRL recruit Jarrod Wallace crashed over just as Jones had done earlier in the first half to level the scores.

It wasn’t level for long though with London Broncos reclaiming the lead when Jarrad Bassett scored on the hour mark after a brilliant Oli Leyland break and offload. Leyland’s kick restored the six-point lead leaving London leading 12-6 with just 20 minutes to go.

Just minutes later, Leyland managed to chase down a kick and set up Sadiq Adebiyi but the forward was caught by a brilliant Sam Tomkins tackle to keep Catalans in the game.

Five minutes later he kicked a booming 40/20 to take the pressure off his side and earn them a fresh set of six just ten metres from the Catalans’ line but the Broncos were wasteful. That was costly as Catalans broke and went on to score through Fouad Yaha, however, Arthur Mourgue missed the kick meaning London still led 12-10 with less than ten minutes to go.

Catalans continued to threaten but the play that helped secure the win was Josh Rourke’s brilliant take from a Sam Tomkins bomb, helping London Broncos regain possession and secure a famous win as 11/1 outsiders.