Hull KR hammer dismal London Broncos

Betfred Super League

London (0) 14

Tries: Walker, Macani, Bassett Goals: Leyland

Hull KR (46) 64

Tries: Broadbent 2, Hiku, Evalds 2, Parcell, Hadley, Luckley 2, Lewis 2 Goals: Lewis 9, Richardson

Hull KR ran in 11 tries as they demolished dismal London Broncos to move to within two points of the Super League summit.

The Robins scored at quicker than a point a minute in a devastating first half thanks to a combination of slick handling, quick thinking and some atrocious defending.

Jack Broadbent went over for two simple early scores and Niall Evalds also added a double as the visitors ran in eight unanswered tries.

Sam Luckley added his second try after the break and Mikey Lewis also touched down twice.

But bottom-of-the-table Broncos improved and Alex Walker, Iliess Macani and Jarred Bassett tries brought some cheer for the suffering home fans at the Cherry Red Records Stadium.

London were hoping to follow up last Sunday’s 34-18 win over Hull FC, their first victory of a miserable Super League season.

But it quickly became a matter of trying to keep the score down and avoid another hammering at the hands of Hull KR, who won the reverse fixture 50-10 last month.

Hall misses out on record in Robins rout

The Robins, who had lost their previous two games, led inside six minutes when a great offload by Peta Hiku allowed Broadbent to step inside and go over in the corner for his third try in three league games.

Broadbent’s second try of the day arrived within four minutes when Evalds found him with a long pass after a clever break by Matt Parcell.

From the kick-off Hiku went over for a simple third and Lewis added his second conversion of the day for a 16-0 lead after just 14 minutes.

Full-back Evalds, who had been involved in all of the tries, added a fourth when selfless team play gifted him the 100th try of his Super League career – and the procession continued.

London’s failure to deal with the offload saw them concede a fifth try inside the 20-minute mark. Parcell darted under the posts, Dean Hadley crashed over after some more weak Broncos defending, Evalds scored under the posts after a smart Lewis kick and Luckley also powered over.

Walker bundled over from close range to get Broncos on the board after the interval, but more missed tackles allowed Luckley to score again to double his season tally.

The only surprise was that not one of Hull KR’s 11 tries were down to Ryan Hall, who started the game one score short of matching fellow legend Danny Maguire’s Super League record of 247 tries.

Hall’s big moment looked to have finally arrived when Evalds broke clear on the left, but with Hall in acres of space, Evalds opted to go inside to Lewis, who crossed for Hull KR’s 10th try of the afternoon.

London’s quality and defensive resolve was largely lacking but the spirit remained and Macani and Bassett both went over, while Lewis became the fourth Hull KR player to score a double.

Hall had a second chance of matching Maguire inside the final minute but an unkind bounce saw him fail to collect the ball with the line calling.

Post-match reaction

Hull KR coach Willie Peters:

"This team does respond to setbacks and we did that again today.

"But I'm not happy with the 14 points that we leaked. We're a defensive team, our focus is defence first, there’s no doubt about that.

"We’ve gone away from being that team, we've been leaking 20-odd points. The second half today was not overly good enough.

"Fourteen points in a half, when we had a team in a vulnerable position, is not great. But I’m happy with the response that we got. But we’re going to keep focusing on defence as our number one priority.

"We’ve got enough talent in our team to be able to score points and hurt teams if we get our defence right."

London Broncos coach Mike Eccles said:

"I'm gutted. We were away for today.

"They are hurting after last week and white hot, and we were way off the pace. The game was done after 20 minutes."

London: Walker; Kershaw, Storey, Bassett, Macani; Leyland, Miloudi; Kennedy, Tison, Adebiyi, Lovell, Natoli, Stock.

Interchanges: Butler, Davis, Bienek, Jones.

Hull KR: Evalds; Broadbent, Hiku, Batchelor, Hall; May, Lewis; Sue, Parcell, Whitbread, Hadley, Tanginoa, Minchella.

Interchanges: King, Luckley, Storton, Richardson.

Referee: Ben Thaler.