Hunslet Hawks beat the London Broncos on Sunday (23 August 2015) 24-41 to keep alive their slim hopes of avoiding relegation from the Kingstone Press Championship.
Hunslet took control of the game in a15 minute spell after half time, scoring three tries and a penalty goal to take a commanding lead, which they held onto until the hooter.
The first half at The Hive saw the lead change hands repeatedly. Broncos’ Garside opened the scoring on ten minutes, but Naiqama could convert. Hunslet replied on 22 minutes through Trout and Brown kicked the conversion for the Hawks to take a 4-6 lead.
Cunningham took back the lead for London five minutes later, but again Naiqama missed the kick. The Hawks came straight back with George Flanagan scoring as they took the score to 8-12.
Sadique Adebiyi, on his debut, scored next for London and Barthau kicked the conversion. The Broncos went into half time ahead 14-12.
Hunslet exerted pressure from the off in the second half and four minutes in Ryan Backhouse went over. Simon Brown again made the conversion. Following a scrum on the Broncos 10m line for a knock on, Lewis Reed crashed over under the posts on 51 minutes and Brown made the afters to extend the Hawks’ lead to 14-24.
Four minutes later James Duckworth scored Hunslet’s fifth try. Broncos’ Jason Walton was sin-binned for holding on too long in the tackle and Brown kicked the resulting penalty. Brown added a drop goal on 65 minutes to take the Hawks’ lead to 14-33.
London rallied with Hellewell scoring two tries on 67 and 74 minutes, either side of another Brown penalty. Hunslet came back to finish the scoring when Jack Lee scored three minutes from time.
Final score: London Broncos 24-41 Hunslet Hawks
Hunslet remain second bottom of the Championship Shield table, four points adrift of Batley Bulldogs. The Hawks next match is away at Whitehaven on Bank Holiday Monday, they then entertain Doncaster and Featherstone before what could be a relegation deciding showdown against the Bulldogs on 20 September.
Asked about possible relegation Coach Barry Eaton told the Yorkshire Evening Post:
“We are still in it, there’s still a mountain to climb, but it is not a foregone conclusion and we still in there fighting.”
Teams:
Hunslet Hawks: Watson, Agoro, Duckworth, Maun, Barnett, Brown, Ansell, Houston, Lee, Trout, Gee, Backhouse, Mackay. Interchange: Flanagan, Castle, Lyons, Reed
London Broncos: Kear, Williams, Hellewell, Naiqama, Morris, Barthau, Cunningham, Walker, Henderson, Gray, Garside, Walton, Wicks. Interchange: Pointer, Davis, Adebiyi, Dollapi
