London Broncos restore values of past promotion glory in fight to survive League 1 drop

Three years ago, London Broncos fought admirably to try and preserve their Super League status during a season which ultimately ended in tears and heartache. Danny Ward’s men made an immediate return to the Championship at the end of 2019 with 20 points – a record for a relegated side – and not much has gone right since.

The 2020 campaign was a wash-out due to the coronavirus pandemic and last season saw the Broncos saw finish seventh and part company with Ward midway through the year. Heading into 2022, London took the seismic decision to go part-time and head coach Jermaine Coleman won just once in 12 Championship games before being sacked with the club in the relegation zone.

Now, as they bid to avoid sliding into League 1, long-serving performance coach Mike Eccles is the man tasked with steering the Broncos away from danger. The 37-year-old from Leigh has engineered an upturn with two wins from six games which have lifted them out of the bottom two ahead of Saturday’s trip to Bradford Bulls.

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Eccles, who joined London 11 years ago and has served as head of strength and conditioning and head of performance, told Rugby League Live: “I think the biggest thing since I took over has been restoring a sense of identity to the team.

“I spoke about it a lot – London Broncos became everyone’s second-favourite team in 2018 and 2019 – and we took pride in being seen as a club doing things the right way. Wardy and Langers (Jamie Langley) were great with the press and had time for everybody and I think we were a very hard-working, humble team.

“We promoted a lot of staff from within the club and from when Jermaine and (assistant coach)