London Broncos played their final pre-season game yesterday in which they only managed a draw against League One side Oldham RLFC, the final result being 18-18.
It was one of the surprise scores of the weekend with the two-league gap being nullified as the home side managed to recover from 10-0 down to earn an impressive draw.
The Roughyeds have recruited well and appointed Sean Long as head coach, something that’s made them heavy favourites for promotion and snagging a result against a Super League side will cement that favouritism even more.
London Broncos’ head coach Mike Eccles has reacted to the result with a post-match reaction shared to the club’s X account and he’s ensured to credit the League One side whilst questioning his own team’s attitude.
Eccles explained: “I thought Oldham were excellent. It was always going to be a big day for them. They’ve recruited well in the off-season, but they were great today.
“We got 10 up and possibly think we’re just going to fall over the finish line and credit to Oldham, they stuck in there and rode out the early pressure that we put on them and hit us back square in the face. So full credit to them really.”
Player performances questioned by Super League coach
London Broncos’ head coach Mike Eccles has stated that some players simply didn’t turn up in the club’s draw against League One Oldham. – Picture by Olly Hassell/SWpix.com – Copyright: x xSWpix.comxt/axPhotographyxHubxLtdxOllyxHassell/SWpix.comx SWP-2329-0057
The draw with Oldham rounds off a winless pre-season for London Broncos with a 14-14 draw against Super League rival Castleford Tigers being their first run out since securing promotion.
They then travelled to Huddersfield where the Giants put 30 unanswered points on them in the second half to run out as 50-16 victors, therefore it seemed that the game against lower league Oldham was primed to round them off with a win.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be and Eccles has explained that whilst they had purposefully selected three tough away games, some players haven’t cut the mustard.
Continuing in the post-match reaction on X, he said: “Yeah, we’ve learnt a lot of lessons in all three pre-season games. It was always going to be three tough away games and that’s what we needed really to ready us.
“Quite clearly now I know players that have put themselves in the frame and players that have put themselves out of the frame to be quite honest, and that’s what I need because we can’t see that through training. As much pressure as we put the players under training at times only matches will tell you who’s up for that challenge.
“Same again today, there were some excellent performances by three or four players in particular that I thought were really good and a few players just didn’t influence the game whatsoever.”
