By STEVE MASCORD
LONDON captain Reagan Campbell-Gillard was stopped by coach Jason Demetriou from returning to the field with a serious calf injury as the Broncos crashed out of the Challenge Cup with only 12 players.
A slew of injuries meant the reborn capital franchise played the final half hour of their round three 26-8 defeat to Bradford at Cherry Red Records Stadium shorthanded.
But when Papua New Guinea centre Alex Max came off, headed for hospital with a chest injury, prop Campbell Gillard came to the sideline wanting to keep the team’s Cup dream alive.
Asked who stopped the giant Aussie international going back on, Demetriou said: “I did.
“I asked ‘can he go back on’ and they said ‘no but he wants to go back on’ and I said ‘well, he’s not going on’.
“He’s got a calf injury so we put him on for what? Hurt his calf more and be out for 10 weeks? He’s already been declared unavailable.
”That’s just Reagan trying to do what he needed to do for the boys.”
Running through the casualty list after a rare modern rugby league game where a team runs out of players but not interchanges, the coach said: “We lost Crofty (Jack Croft) the first 15 minutes to HIA. We lost Campbell-Gillard, calf.
“Dean Hawkins, calf, and Lewis Bienik as well in the first half. That put us under a fair bit of pressure. Then we lost Alex Max who’s had to go to hospital with a chest injury.
“To lose your captain, your halfback and have no players left to go back on the field in the first half and then to be down to 12 men … I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.”
While Bradford scored first on Sunday, winger Liam Tindall posted a stunning try in the right corner just before halftime after some miracle offloadfs to give the Broncos an 8-4 lead before a sizeable, vocal crowd.
Hooker Andy Ackers finished off a mid-field incision to level the scores eight minutes into the second half, with Rowan Milnes’ conversion edging the Bulls in front.
But once a man short, the Broncos battled gamely and still created scoring chances in a performance man-of-the-match James Meadows said would help established the rejuvenated club’s identity.
Eventually, the numerical advantage was too much, with further Bradford tries to winger Ethan Ryan (61st minute), second rower Dan Russell (73) and centre Waqa`Blake (78).
“You can’t be more proud of that out there,” said Demetriou. “I said up in the coaches box area with Danny Ward: ‘That’s just unbelievable what they’re turning up with, how they keep just finding a way to turn up with bodies missing everywhere, fatigue everywhere but somehow they keep making it a contest’.
“We came off the field with our DNA clear for everyone to see – who we are and what we’re about.
“I just said to them ‘where we’ve come from as a club and where we’re heading, that was evident today’ … sitting here, punching above our weight against a Super League side.
“There’s some guys there that I’ve coached with PNG that I haven’t seen put in an effort like that in terms of work ethic and turning up for your team-mate.
“We need to bottle that.”
BRADFORD 26 (Okunbor Ackers Ryan Russell Blake tries Milnes 3 goals) beat LONDON 8 (Glare Tindall tries) at Cherry Red Records Stadium.
Teams:
LONDON: Morea Morea; Liam Tindall, Alex Max, Brandon Webster-Mansfield, Neil Tchamambe; Dean Hawkins, Connor O’Bierne; Reagan Campbell-Gillard ©, Finley Glare, Epel Kapinias, Luke Smith, Jack Croft, Sadiq Adebiyi. Res: James Meadows, Lewis Bienik, Gairo Voro, Emarly Bitungane.
BRADFORD: Caleb Aekins; Jayden Okunbor, Esan Marsters, Waqa Blake, Ethan Ryan; Joe Keyes, Rowan Milnes; Ryan Sutton, Andy Ackers, Loghan Lewis, Dan Russell, Zac Fulton, Joe Mellor. Res: Mick Souter, Ebon Scurr. Eribe Doro, Ed Chamberlain.
Referee: Marcus Griffiths.
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