Hunslet RLFC 6-72 London Broncos
Hunslet slumped to their largest defeat of the season at the South Leeds Stadium yesterday (29 June 2025) as fellow strugglers London piled on the pressure on a scorching hot day.
It all started brightly for the Parksiders when a Lee Gaskell kick was spilt and on the next tackle Harvey Hallas wriggled his way over to score. Jowitt converting. 6-0 on 3 minutes.
But eventually London got on the front foot and after ‘6 again’ a good move sent Louix Gorman over. Jack Smith converting. 6-6 on 12 minutes.
Hunslet did themselves no favours making simple errors and inviting defensive work on themselves on a hot day.
Another penalty on 20 minutes and London shifted the ball to Gorman who scored his second of the afternoon. 6-10
On 25 minutes again on the last tackle, even though Hunslet had defended well Conner O’Beirne threw out a quality ball for Luke Polselli to score. 6-16.
From the kick-off Hunslet kicked out on the full and again invited London into their 25. It took a Billy Jowitt intercept to stop another try.
But still in the game Hunslet found an attacking option as McEwan-Peters and Jowitt combined to attack and Jimmy Watson forced a drop-out. The next set saw Hunslet try to power over, until Billy Jowitt tried a ‘Sydney Harbour Bridge’ ball unfortunately read by Liam Tindall who sprinted 90 yards to score. 6-22
This knocked the stuffing out of Hunslet, and with 5 minutes to half time a line ball to the right saw Jack Smith score to make it 6-26 at the break.
With Lee Gaskell leaving the field at the break and Brad Clavering coming off injured the second half was a non-contest.
Although Billy Jowitt came close to scoring London tries came at regular intervals. Tindall scored his second on the left, before the impressive O’Beirne waltzed over to make it 6-38.
Hursey-Hord scored too easily on 59 minutes and an O’Beirne break sent Gorman over for his hat trick 2 minutes later. 6-50
With Sam Campbell in the sin-bin for Hunslet, Smith, Natoli and Walker added tries, at times even showboating as they went over to score.
Gorman added his fourth try on 80 minutes to complete the rout and with Smith converting 10 from 13 it was a good day for the Broncos. 6-72
As for Hunslet it’s hard to say where next. They travel to Odsal to take on Bradford Bulls this Friday (4 July) and could be in for a huge defeat if some pride is not found.
Liam Welham picked up both ‘Tricks of the trade’ Sponsors Man of the Match and Phoenix Bar Supporters Man of the Match on his 250th career appearance.
Hunslet RLFC: Watson, Turner, McEwan-Peters, Westerman, Ward, Jowitt, Gaskell, Hallas, Corbett, Foster, Kirby, Welham, Clavering. Interchanges: Berry, Syme, O’Hanlon, Campbell. 18th player: Fletcher.
London Broncos: Polselli, Smith, Webster-Mansfield, Gorman, Tindall, Walker, O’Beirne, Adebiyi, Davies, Worthington, Lovell, Natoli, Stock. Interchanges: Kerr, Bienek, Hursey-Hord, Ross. 18th player: Small.
Today (30 June) the club issued the followiing statement:
Hunslet have today parted company with Head Coach Dean Muir.
CEO Neil Hampshire said:
“The Club would like to place on record our thanks to Dean for all his hard work and dedication whilst in the role. He will forever be etched in the Club’s folklore for the way he guided us through the play-offs and into the Championship at the end of last season. Unfortunately, however, results so far this year have fallen short of expectations and the Club has decided that we need to move in a different direction. We’d like to wish Dean all the best for the future.”
Photo: Liam Welham. Credit Craig Irvine
While you’re here, can we ask a favour?
South Leeds Life is published by a not-for-profit social enterprise. We keep our costs as low as possible but we’ve been hit by increases in the print costs for our monthly newspaper which have doubled in the last two years.
Could you help support local community news by making a one off donation, or even better taking out a supporters subscription?
Donate here, or sign up for a subscription at bit.ly/SLLsubscribe
