Saints v London Broncos

Saints improved their point’s differential gap on league leaders Leeds Rhinos with a 14 try 76-6 demolition of London, writes Graham Henthorne.

Josh Simm, Jake Wingfield and Matty Foster all scored braces with the remaining tries shared out amongst eight players.

The game was over as a contest in the first quarter of an hour as the Saints built up a 28 point lead with some clinical finishing.

Man of the Match Callum Hazard opened the scoring in the fourth minute as he supported Tom Nisbet’s 20 metre break to score under the posts.

On the fourth play from the kick off the Saints spread the ball left through Jorge Lewtas and Sam Royle finding Josh Simm who beat the winger on the outside before cutting inside on half way and beating the cover to score.

Saints again went in on the restart set as John Hutchings went over in the right corner after Jack Welsby had cut the visitors open with a trademark weaving 50 metre run.

Alex Eckley made up for last week’s blunder by touching down Jake Wingfield’s neat last tackle grubber for the fourth try and the fifth came to Luke Ward taking Nisbett’s tip on pass to go in unopposed.

The best try of the afternoon came on quarter time. Captain Eckley broke down the middle, gave a short pass out to Welsby who in turn beat the fullback with another short pass inside this time to the supporting Wingfield to go in.

Substitutions disrupted the Saints a little allowing the Broncos to get more of a grip in the second quarter but the Saints still managed to score twice more.

Ward, playing some of his best rugby in a Saints shirt, went on a 40 metre run and two tackles later Simm jumped from dummy half to score his second.

The eighth and last of the half went to fullback Nisbet who scored in the corner after Ryan Horne had weaved his way in and out of trouble to find him.

As ever in these situations it very difficult to keep up the scintillating rugby after the half time interval and this was the case today.

Give the Broncos their due they came out with renewed vigour having been a bit embarrassed in the first period and made the Saints work harder for everything.

Having said that, two tries in the first six minutes pushed the lead out even further.

On the first possession Brandon O’Neill put Kian Horridge away. The big prop looked a little like a rabbit in the headlights as he approached the fullback, made even more apparent by his dodgy pass out to Jorge Lewtas who did well to take it. Had the ball been anywhere above his ankles Lewtas would have scored but he took the correct option offloading to Wingfield steaming up in support.

A last tackle chip and hope from Ryan Horne gave him a try as he picked up his own touched kick to go in from close range.

Then a little tiredness and complacency allowed the Broncos best, their fullback, to go on a 50 metre run through the heart of the Saints defensive line. Welsby caught him from behind but there was a poor reaction from the rest of the team and the visitors prop charged over three tackles later.

The last quarter was all Saints as the visitors tired and the Saints, despite injuries to two players finished the stronger.

Hazard put Sam Royle in under the posts to bring up the 60 point mark and with a penalty from the kick off Matty Foster benefitted from quick hands to go in for his first.

He scored his second as the Saints again went back to back to back with a Hazard offload putting him clear.

Hazard then somehow contrived to knock on over the line from Welsby’s well-judged grubber but the Saints had the last say with Hutchings going in for his second on the final whistle after good work from Foster and Sean Croston.

Not the strongest opposition, but only Castleford have got anywhere near this sort of scoreline against the Broncos.

Jorge Lewtas and Sam Royle went well along with Luke Ward and Jack Welsby but as mentioned previously, apart from his brain explosion, Callum Hazard was the best on show.

Match Summary:

Saints U19s:
Tries: Callum Hazard (4), Josh Simm (6 & 27), John Hutchings (9 & 80), Alex Eckley (14), Luke Ward (16), Jake Wingfield (21 & 42), Tom Nisbet (34), Ryan Horne (46), Sam Royle (62), Matty Foster (65 & 68)
Goals: Callum Hazzard 10 from 14.

London U19s:
Tries: Sam Davis (51).
Goals: Rhys Joel 1 from 1.

Half Time: 44-0
Full Time: 76-6

Teams:

Saints:
1. Tom Nisbet; 2. Sean Croston, 3. Luke Ward, 4. Josh Simm, 5. John Hutchings; 6. Jack Welsby, 7. Ryan Horne; 8. Alex Eckley (C), 9. Jake Wingfield, 10. Jorge Lewtas, 11. Ben Sims, 12. Sam Royle, 13. Callum Hazard.
Subs: 14. Brandon O’Neill, 15. Matty Foster, 16. Kian Horridge, 17. Chris Kellett.

London:
1. Gideon Boafo; 2. Jesse Fearn, 3. Thomas Scott, 4. Charlie Gamble, 5. Ryan Couch; 6. Oliver Leyland, 7. Rian Horsman; 8. Sam Davis, 9. Robert Oakley, 10. William Blakemore, 11. Jacob Jones, 15. Joshua Hodson, 13. Rhys Joel.
Subs: 12. William Budd, 14. Adam Green, 16. Christopher Ball, 17. Joe Leigh.