REPORT | London Broncos 68 Dons 18

The Dons fell to defeat on the road as they were beaten by London Broncos in the Betfred Championship at the Kuflink Stadium.

Richard Horne's side took the lead in the opening minutes of the game through Watson Boas, but they couldn't keep the home side out and trailled by 28 points at the break.

The Dons started brightly again after the restart as Bureta Faraimo found a brace and Boas added another try to follow in the winger's footsteps, but London took the game away from the Dons towards the end to take the two points.
Horne made three changes to the side that deservedly saw off Widnes Vikings ten days earlier, with Luke Briscoe, Suaia Matagi and Loui McConnell all handed spots inside the starting XIII.
In quite the contrast to the start of the trip to London in the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup earlier in the 2026 season, the Dons this time raced out of the traps to take an early lead after five minutes.
Connor Robinson stole possession inside the Broncos half early in a hosts' set and immediately put his side on the front foot. The visitors then shifted play all the way to the right wing, where Boas smartly dived over the line at the corner for a four-point lead.
But London responded six minutes later. Horne's men looked to be dealing with the home attacking threat on the left, but play was switched over to the right, and Neil Tchamambe went over to level the scores.
On 17 minutes, the Broncos were in front. Finley Glare charged at the try line to the right of the posts and bundled his way through the Dons defence to hold off his man and score. Meadows added the extras.
London scored again after 22 minutes. After a deflected Dons pass just beyond the halfway line, the football fell kindly into the hands of Glare, who raced away on the breakaway to secure his personal brace for the evening on the left-hand side. 14-4.
Ben Hursey-Hord made the hosts' advantage 16 points on 26 minutes after a gap opened up on the left to coolly slot into. Meadows converted.
Three minutes later, London were in again. Connor O'Beirne found himself in the right place and capitalised on the opportunity to score. Meadows added the extras again. 26-4.
On 33 minutes, Bureta Faraimo was shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Alex Walker; London's Meadows was also sin-binned during the resulting altercation, and interchange Isaac Misky was sent off for his involvement in the scuffle on the halfway line. Both teams were down to 12 men for a ten-minute spell, and the Dons were down to three interchanges.
London added one more try two minutes before the interval as Brandon Webster-Mansfield found his way in on the left. He then converted his own try in the short-term absence of Meadows to leave a half time scoreline of 32-4.
The Dons returned at the start of the second half defiant and scored on 45 minutes. Fresh from returning from his own sin-binning, Faraimo pounced onto a botched collection of a Robinson kick over to the left wing and grounded to bring his side within 24 points.
Four minutes later, the Dons number two was in again. Robinson again kicked over to the corner, this time on the right, and Faraimo was there to jump higher than all of the London defence and then score to claim his own personal brace for the evening. 32-14.
The Dons came close again immediately after, and the pressure looked to be on.
But a try came at the other end after 56 minutes, much to the relief of the home fans. Gairo Voro spotted a gap on the last tackle and slid in to trouble the scoreboard operator. Meadows converted again.
Five minutes on, another brace came for another Dons man, this time Boas. A dinked kick over the top found the Dons number 24's outstretched hand and was secured to score in the right-hand corner. 38-18.
But the then 20-point deficit proved to be too much to overcome and was in fact made bigger by the hosts. Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Luke Smith and Voro all added further tries on 64, 67 and 72 minutes, respectively, and Meadows converted all three to make the scores 56-18.
The contest was over in terms of outcome, but London added another try after 77 minutes. Smith scored to make it a brace for himself on the right. Meadows converted. 62-18.
And there was still time for one more try for the hosts. Lewis Bienek slotted in to score to the left of the uprights. Meadows added the extras again as the deficit increased to 50 points.
That was how it ended on the road as the Dons were put to the sword on the road despite spells of promise, and the final scoreline showed 68-18.
Dons: Holmes, Faraimo, Boas, Glover, Briscoe, Aston, Robinson, Matagi, Burns, Mustapha, J. Jones, Johnson, McConnell. Interchanges: Smeaton, Misky, Hepi, Whitehead.