REPORT | Dons 16 London Broncos 30

The Dons trailed for all of six minutes at the Eco-Power Stadium, but it was enough to be beaten by Betfred Championship league leaders London Broncos.

Richard Horne's side were the superiors in the first half in South Yorkshire and deservedly led at the break courtesy of an Edene Gebbie try and two Connor Robinson penalty goals.

Gebbie added another try to complete his brace just after the interval, but the visitors came back late on to win by 14 points and take the two points back to the capital.
Horne made five changes to the side that comfortably saw off Salford RLFC in the first round of the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup over a week earlier, with Mitieli Vulikijapani, Cory Aston, Connor Jones, Suaia Matagi and Muizz Mustapha all handed spots inside the starting XIII.
The opening ten minutes of the contest saw some huge tackles going in from both sides, but it was the Dons who scored the first six points of the game after 12 minutes.
After dragging the Broncos into touch on the left, the hosts shifted play out to the right and then all the way back to the left, where Gebbie sprinted in at the corner. Robinson added the extras.
Horne's men were on the front foot and were awarded a penalty just in front of the sticks after a quarter of an hour and elected to kick for two. London's Siliva Havili was also shown a yellow card and sin-binned for dissent.
Robinson successfully nailed the resulting penalty kick. 8-0.
The Dons were awarded another penalty after 21 minutes, this time 30 metres out from the line. Robinson again successfully pinned the kick for a now ten-point lead.
Despite the hosts' early good work in the first half, they wouldn't have it all their own way in the opening 40.
The Broncos responded on 29 minutes. Dean Hawkins managed to fit into a gap and go over on the last and then added the extras to his own try to make it 10-6.
The Dons looked to hit back immediately and finished the opening half the stronger of the two sides, but half time arrived with just the four points in it.
The home side again came out for the second half with an intention of applying the pressure on the London line, and it paid off six minutes after the restart. Aston kicked over towards the left-hand corner, and Gebbie climbed highest to collect and then score. Robinson converted to restore the ten-point lead.
London thought they had crafted themselves an opportunity when Gebbie was forced to palm behind his own line on 55 minutes, but Robinson produced a huge goal-line drop-out to see the ball into touch just short of the halfway line. And that just about summed up the Broncos' afternoon up to that point, really.
The Dons went agonisingly close to furthering their advantage just before the hour mark as they looked clean through, but Aston just couldn't get a firm grip on Luis Johnson's pass, and the football escaped free and loose.
The visitors then went on to make the Dons pay for that missed opportunity.
After 70 minutes Reagan Campbell-Gillard stretched out his arm for the line just to the right of the posts and managed to score. Hawkins converted to bring London within four points.
And then in the 74th, the away side went in front for the first time of the day. Morea Morea received a stroke of luck and pounced on a loose ball to score on the right. Hawkins added the extras again. 16-18.
London kicked on from that point and scored two late tries, first through Hawkins and then Luke Smith, and Hawkins converted them both. 16-30.
That's how it ended as the Dons lost out, although not by a scoreline that reflected the true nature of the game.
Dons: Holmes, Vulikijapani, Lyne, Glover, Gebbie, Robinson, Aston, Gwaze, C. Jones, Matagi, J. Jones, Johnson, Mustapha. Interchanges: McConnell, Pauli, Hepi, Boas.