Gower conducts Broncos revival

London Broncos 40 Salford City Reds 28

Wyn Griffiths
Saturday 04 August 2012 18:02 EDT
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As the Reds crumbled, Jamie O'Callaghan, Will Lovell and Luke Dorn (pictured) saw London home with late scores
As the Reds crumbled, Jamie O'Callaghan, Will Lovell and Luke Dorn (pictured) saw London home with late scores (Getty Images)

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London's coach ,Tony Rea, lavished praise on Craig Gower after he marshalled the Broncos to a sensational 40-28 comeback victory over Salford at the Stoop.

The Australian scored a try, created three others, kicked four goals and was a buzzing presence as the Londoners overcame a 28-6 interval deficit in stunning style.

"I thought Craig was outstanding today," Rea said. "We needed players to step up at half-time and when I saw the glint in his eye I knew we had a chance."

Omari Caro gave London an early lead when he intercepted a loose Luke Patten pass to romp home, but it was all Salford after that, as they ran in six first half tries, seemingly taking a strangehold on the game.

Vinnie Anderson struck first, with scores from Sean Gleeson, Matty Ashurst, Jodie Broughton and two by Ashley Gibson following.

But in a stunning reversal, four second-half scores from Gower, Tony Clubb, Kieran Dixon and Chris Bailey hauled the Broncos to within two points with 10 minutes to play. As the Reds crumbled, Jamie O'Callaghan, Will Lovell and Luke Dorn saw London home with late scores.

Salford's coach, Phil Veivers, whose side slipped in the race for the play-offs, was outraged. "Some of the performances out there were disgusting," he said. "There are some players that need to take a long hard look at themselves.

"At 28-6 at half-time you expect to win a game, but ill-discipline let us down big time. There is a lot of soul-searching to be done. We will look at the video and go from there.

"We did not just lose the game, we lost it convincingly, and that is hard to take."

London Broncos Robertson; Dixon, O'Callaghan, Howell, Caro; Dorn, Gower; Kaufusi, Randall, Wheeldon, Lovell, Bailey, Clubb. Substitutes used Rinaldi, Bryant, Krasniqi, Melling.

Salford City Reds Patten; Broughton, Gleeson, Gibson, Williams; Holdsworth, Howarth; Sidlow, Anderson, Boyle, Adamson, Ashurst, Wild. Substitutes used Gledhill, James, Nero, Owen.

Referee George Stokes.

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