Theo Fages produced a Man of the match performance to lead Saints to a 26-0 victory over a dogged London Broncos side at the Totally Wicked Stadium.
The scrum half scored a wonderful try and set up two others as Justin Holbrook’s side went two points clear at the top of the table and improved the for and against column, keeping the Broncos scoreless.
Holbrook made three changes following the win over Salford with Kevin Naiqama coming in for Matty Costello, Jack Ashworth came in for Matty Lees and Aaron Smith started in place of James Roby, who missed out due to a small niggle.
On a wet and windy evening, it didn’t take long for Saints to take the lead. Dom Peyroux picked up a short ball from Fages and crashed his way over the line for the perfect start. Lachlan Coote with the conversion gave saints a 6-0 lead.
The Broncos impressed in defence and held firm for over 20 minutes, until Saints broke their resistance and doubled the lead as Kevin Naiqama’s run set up the space for Regan Grace to power over form 20 metres.
Saints began to stamp their authority on the game, racking up back to back sets on the Broncos line. Finally the pressure tolled in the 33rd minute as a jinking run from Zeb Taia followed by a fantastic offload to Fages gave him the simple task of scoring to the left of the sticks. Coote tagging on the extras to make it 16-0 at half time.
London came out for the second half attempting to get back into the game. Danny Ward’s side had two great spells of pressure on the Saints line, but the defence stood firm with a huge shot from Dominic Peyroux on Morgan Smith which drew cheers from the Totally Wicked crowd.
Our little Frenchman Fages found the gap in the defensive line on the 62nd minute and made a 40 metre break before Coote latched onto a pass from the Frenchman to go under the sticks, for his first try in the Red Vee making it 22-0. Coote added the conversion to his own try making him 3 from 4.
Naiqama added the icing on the cake after he took a short pass from Fages before rounding the defender to score in the corner to secure a 26-0 win as Saints march on.
Match Summary:
Saints:
Tries: Peyroux 2’, Grace 25’, Fages 33’, Coote 62’, Naiqama 77’.
Goals: Coote (3 from 5)
Starting 13: Lachlan Coote, Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama, Mark Percival, Regan Grace, Jonny Lomax, Theo Fages, Alex Walmsley, Aaron Smith, Luke Thompson, Zeb Taia, Dom Peyroux, Morgan Knowles.
Interchanges: Joseph Paulo, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Kyle Amor, Jack Ashworth.
London Broncos:
Starting 13: Alex Walker, Elliot Kear, Matthew Fleming, Jacob Ogdenm Rhys Williams, Jordan Abdull, Morgan Smith, Eddie Battye, Eloi Pelissier, Robert Butler, Luke Yates, William Lovell, Matthew Davies.
Interchanges: Mark Ioane, Matthew Fozard, Matthew Gee, Sadiq Adebiyi
HT: 16-0
FT: 26-0
REF: M Griffiths
ATT: 9090
Saints secure win
