London Broncos 68 Batley Bulldogs 12: Unbeaten Broncos lay down marker after bulldozing Bulldogs

London's tormentor-in-chief, four-try Kieron Dixon.
PIC: Jonathan Gawthorpe — London's tormentor-in-chief, four-try Kieron Dixon. PIC: Jonathan Gawthorpe

The Bulldogs had been hoping to extend their recent good form, but struggled to keep up with the Championship’s form side. It took just eight minutes for the deadlock to be broken, with Dixon crossing to finish a smart passing move, all coming from Batley losing the ball deep inside their own half.

London continued to find success down Batley’s right-hand side, first Dixon made 60 metres from his own line after a poor kick on the last, and Lovell scored to extend the home side’s lead. Dixon then managed to get over again by picking up a grubber that left Batley’s defence flatfooted.

Batley did eventually work their way into the game, but despite earning repeat sets a Jarrod Sammut 40/20 undid most of that momentum.

Dominic Brambani saw red for Batley late in the game at London Broncos. PIC: Paul Butterfield

From the resulting set Cunningham celebrated his England Knights call-up with a try from dummy half, and Dixon was soon able to follow that up by completing a first-half hat-trick. Batley did get on the scoreboard before half time, with James Scott Brown bundling over but it continued to get worse before the break, with Sammut collecting a smart chip and sending Api Pewhairangi over for his first of the afternoon, and London into the break 36-6 up.

Dixon squeezed into the corner again for his fourth, before Brown’s second try. Batley’s afternoon only got worse after Dominic Brambani was shown a red card for an incident off the ball, and from there London regained control.

Rhys Williams and Pewhairangi grabbed their second tries of the afternoon, while Sam Davies and Matt Gee both touched down on an afternoon the Broncos laid down an impressive marker.