LONDON Broncos proved themselves to be more obdurate opponents than Leeds Rhinos have encountered of late, but a brace of tries by Danny McGuire and Keith Senior’s 100th for the club last night helped to steer the engage Super League leaders into their seventh Powergen Challenge Cup semi-final in ten years.
Instead of building on a 12-10 lead early in the second half, they stung Leeds into a four-try response in a commanding last half-hour.
After struggling with the conditions and up against London’s commendable persistence, Leeds concluded with a flourish in a quarter-final that looked at one stage as if it could go the distance to establish themselves as favourites to lift the sport’s oldest trophy, in Cardiff in August, for the first time since 1999.
London were glad of the rain, Leeds having laid waste to Wakefield Trinity Wildcats and Wigan Warriors with 26 tries on dry pitches in their previous outings. The greasy ball got the better of the Rhinos for much of the first half, but squandered possession by the Broncos led to a simple pick-up-and-go from 40 metres for McGuire after 11 minutes.
Parity was restored by Nick Bradley-Qalilawa’s thirteenth try of the season, in reacting to Thomas Leuluai’s shimmying run, one of the few to light up an attritional half. Paul Sykes converted from wide out, but two rapid penalties gave Leeds the momentum to turn round 10-6 ahead.
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Richard Mathers’s long pass prised open London on the right and Willie Poching provided the support for Chev Walker to finish strongly in the right corner.
Leeds could not get any leverage on a wet ball, despite sustained pressure after the resumption. Rob Burrow did marvellously well in getting back 50 metres to drag down Luke Dorn, who had seized on his speculative grubber kick, but London suddenly had their tails up and Sykes briefly put them in front, converting Solomon Haumono’s powerful 50th-minute touchdown after good work by Rob Purdham.
It was to be the last time that London had sight of the Leeds line. A surging run by Chris McKenna immediately put Leeds on the front foot again and a combination of McGuire’s clever improvisation on the last tackle and Sykes charging out of the London defensive line to collar Burrow resulted in the diminutive Leeds scrum half ducking the full back’s challenge and bolting into the resulting gap.
In giving away a scrum 20 metres out, London invited further trouble and Kevin Sinfield needed no second bidding in surging from the back and popping a scoring pass out to McGuire.
The fight had visibly gone from the Broncos by the time that Senior brushed off Bradley-Qalilawa for his landmark score, six years after he joined Leeds from Sheffield Eagles, with whom he lifted the cup in 1998.
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Tyrone Smith was dispatched to the sin-bin as the game drew to a close to hinder London further and they were unpicked towards the end by Senior’s flick pass to the unmarked Marcus Bai for an ultimately comfortable journey to the line.
SCORERS: Leeds Rhinos: Tries: McGuire 2, Walker, Burrow, Senior, Bai. Goals: Sinfield 4. London Broncos: Tries: Bradley-Qalilawa, Haumono, Goals:Sykes 2.
LEEDS RHINOS: R Mathers; M Calderwood, C Walker, K Senior, M Bai; D McGuire, R Burrow; R Bailey, A Dunemann, J Jones-Buchanan, G Ellis, C McKenna, K Sinfield. Substitutes: A Lauitiiti, W Poching, B McDermott, N Scruton.
LONDON BRONCOS: Z Luisi; J Wells, P Sykes, T Smith, N Bradley-Qalilawa; L Dorn, T Leuluai; S Trindall, D Highton, F Stephenson, R Purdham, L Hopkins, J Mbu. Substitutes: S Haumono, D Williams, M Tookey, M O’Halloran.
Referee: S Ganson.