London Broncos 16-58 St Helens

This was another bad day for Broncos but they showed real fighting spirit particularly in the second half and scored three good tries.

A team with an average age of 20 were always going to find it tough against the league leaders and the stifling heat did nothing to help the cause.

St Helens raced into a 16-0 lead with tries from Mark Percival, Kyle Amor and Jordan Turner with Percival adding two conversions. The Broncos were finding it tough handling their big forwards but hit back midway through the half when a kick from Jon Wilkin was charged down and James Woodburn-Hall snapped up the ball and raced to the line.

Josh Drinkwater converted but the visitors soon increased their lead, Turner claiming his second and Paul Wellens crossing for another. Percival converted both for a 28-6 lead at half time and then touched down for his second try early in the second half.

Bright spark: Denny Solomona with ball

Broncos showed nice touches and slick moves but were unable to finish.

However, when a St Helens attack broke down Thomas Minns booted the ball downfield and chased after it. He kept his head to secure possession deep in the opposition half and this time the home side made the most of it, Will Lovell thundering on to a short pass from Drinkwater to touch down.

Minutes later they conjured up another good attacking position thanks to a superb 40/20 from Drinkwater but it ended with Minns being tackled into touch by the corner flag. However, going into the final quarter they struck again, Denny Solomona leaping high above the defenders to pluck Drinkwater's high spiralling bomb out of the air to score.

The scrum-half made it 32-16 with the conversion but in the final 15 minutes St Helens took advantage of a wilting Broncos outfit to run in five more tries, three of which Percival converted to wrap up proceedings.

London Broncos Head Coach Joe Grima

Head coach Joey Grima said: "We ran out of replacements and we ran out of gas, particularly in those conditions today, they were really, really difficult.

"St Helens, their rugby league management today was superb. The average age of our team was 20 years and two months. Without disrespecting St Helens, I feel there was a seven or eight year difference - that's the level of experience we're giving up to other teams.”