SHORT kicks offs, trick shots, balls kicked into no-man’s land and a play-what-you-see attitude – newly promoted London Broncos certainly turned back the clock in more ways than their retro 1980s Fulham jersey.
The unorthodox nature of the opposition probably took a little getting used to, but in awful conditions, Saints did not deviate from their script and with halves Jonny Lomax and Theo Fages controlling the game they broke down the Londoners stubborn defence.
Fages had another impressive, and did not get too frustrated when the London defensive line would not crack under the weight pressure.
He would be rewarded for his patience later on in the piece, when his willingness to run and beat a man pierced the line to set up Lachlan Coote’s second half touchdown.
Coote again had another fine game, and a glimpse of what he has in his locker came when he whipped the ball left, with a long cut-out pass, for Regan Grace to dart over in the corner for Saints’ second of the night.
Players who have the vision to read things and the skill to execute them are worth their weight in gold, and Coote is very swiftly filling the boots of his predecessor in a different way.
It will by no means go down as a classic.
The empty East Stand, with a few hardy Londoners making the Friday night trip north, and the awful conditions contributed to a difficult game for Saints to lift for.
Usually the noise of mumbling chatter indicates one of those games, although the West Stand did occasionally break out.
Despite the Broncos beating Wigan last week and Wakefield in week one, Saints were on a bit of a hiding to nothing.
After Saints had opened the scoring within two minutes, with Dom Peyroux weaving and powering through, there may have been a feeling that the scoreboard operators would be in for a busy night.
But Broncos managed to slow the game down, and then backed that up with some pretty gutsy on-the-line defence, which held Saints up on the line four or five times.
Among those being held up was Aaron Smith, making his first start in the red vee, and deputising for skipper James Roby.
Big boots to fill, but it was an effective first hour and some nice touches from the young nine who has been playing on dual reg at Leigh this year.
Tries from Grace and Fages gave Saints a 16-0 lead at the interval, and that was added to by scores from Coote and a late one from Kevin Naiqama.
The Fijian World Cup skipper looked like he was itching to get the ball – and on two occasions he exploded into life.
The first time, his shuffling run from a standing start stretched the Broncos defence to the right to allow Saints to spread left for Grace’s score.
The second time he simply powered through the defence, with his finger raised aloft as dashed over the line before touching down and then delightedly launching the ball high into the West Stand.
The hooter was not long after – with the zero points on the scoreboard, following on from the mere four-pointer from a kick at Salford and a scoreless second half against Leeds, showing that Saints’ defence is on its mettle at the moment.
Saints: Coote; Makinson, Naiqama, Percival, Grace; Lomax, Fages; Walmsley, Smith, Thompson, Taia, Peyroux, Knowles. Subs: Paulo, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Amor, Ashworth.
London: Walker; Kear, Fleming, Ogden, Williams; Abdull, Smith; Battye, Pelissier, Butler, Yates, Lovell, Davies. Subs: Ione, Fozard, Gee, Adebiyi.
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