The unwanted record London Broncos remain on track to break following thumping St Helens defeat
Hakim Miloudi pictured in action for London Broncos in 2024
Following a thumping 52-6 defeat to St Helens at Twickenham Stoop, London Broncos remain on track to comfortably break the unwanted record of the lowest ‘points for’ tally in a Super League season.
Sunday afternoon’s loss to Saints was the ninth time that the newly-promoted Broncos have seen their points return in a league game remain in single digits.
Paul Wellens’ visitors ran in nine unanswered tries at the Stoop, with another three ruled out by the video referee and two of those decisions appearing harsh, before Lee Kershaw touched down for a consolation effort in the dying embers of the game.
Mike Eccles’ side, like the majority of the sides in the top flight, have now played 14 league games in 2024 – with a ‘points for’ tally of just 140.
And when you do the maths, it is far from pleasant reading.
The unwanted record London Broncos remain on track to break following thumping St Helens defeat
140 points scored over those 14 outings is an average of just 10 per game, and when you multiply that figure by 27 – the total number of league games that will be played by London this year – you get 270.
Regardless of how many games a team has played in a single Super League season, never before have they yielded a points return of fewer than 288, the tally accumulated by Huddersfield Giants back in 1998 during a 23-game season.
Had that Giants side been involved in the competition this term and played 27 rounds, using their average, they’d have reached 338 points scored.
Wakefield Trinity last year scored 303 over their 27 games en-route to relegation, and in just 22 games, Leigh – then Centurions – scored 356 in 2021.
Trinity’s 303 in 2023 is the lowest return so far in a 27-round campaign, and the Broncos simply have some going to get near that in their 13 remaining games this term.
In fact, the capital club would need to score 12.53 points per game on average from now until the end of the season – essentially needing to score three or more tries on average in each of those remaining 13 games.
Even Hull KR, who finished bottom having played only 17 games in the 2020 season disrupted heavily by the COVID-19 Pandemic, scored more points than the 258 London are on track for. The Robins got 290 in 2020 in 10 fewer games!
Elsewhere, it’s the same story for the four years that the Super 8s/Qualifiers were introduced, even when those extra games at the end of the season aren’t counted.
The lowest scorers across those four seasons in the 23-game regular season were Widnes Vikings in 2017. The Chemics finished bottom after those 23 games having scored 359 points, and didn’t even go down! Leigh did.
It doesn’t get any easier for London, who next Friday night – June 21 – visit the reigning Super League champions in Wigan Warriors.
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