MATCH REPORT - THUNDER 0 - 44 LONDON BRONCOS

Newcastle Thunder suffered a disappointing Betfred Championship loss to London Broncos on Sunday afternoon

Thunder left round 22 scoreless as they were unable to convert opportunities into points as the capital club continued their recent run of good for and took a fifth win in eight games.

Managing injuries and suspensions, the home side’s cause wasn’t helped by losing Dan Coates with just three minutes played and Ollie Roberts early in the second half, but the Broncos were good value for the result.

The hosts created the best chances in the early exchanges going close on three separate occasions and enforcing a repeat set on the last of those.

It should have yielded an opening try for Josh Eaves, but obstruction in the final build-up instead gave a penalty to the Broncos.

It was the first of three on the bounce in a passage of play allowed London to take the lead against the run of play.

Giving up the third 10 metres out from their line, Thunder were stretched in defence and a smart quick pass from Alex Walker played Iliess Macani in to break the deadlock.

The lead was doubled two minutes later as Paul Ulberg rounded off a flowing move on the right edge, with both conversion attempts missed with a stiff breeze affecting their trajectory.

Unable to get any fluidity into their attack, further missed opportunities saw the London lead extended on the half hour through Will Lovell.

After a slow start to the second half and the loss of Roberts the Broncos seized a half chance as they put boot to ball with Sitiveni Moceidreke winning the foot race to dot down.

The killer blow came as Thunder attempted to force a score whilst hammering on the Broncos line, as Ulberg picked off a speculative pass out to the wing and raced a full 90 metres for his second of the game.

Switching kicker from Oli Leyland to Moceidreke had the desired effect as Broncos sank their first successful goal of the game.

With a sizeable cushion the Broncos began to cut loose with a further four tries in the closing quarter.

Lovell struck first as Broncos were once again able to deploy quick offloads to free the man into space, before Walker struck off the restart as London were able to execute a smart 40/20 which.

A short pass to the on-rushing Jordan Williams saw the prop crash through the last man at pace and scamper clear, before Ulberg scored his hattrick.