Danny Ward accused his London Broncos side of being too soft after they suffered a 28-24 Super League defeat by Hull FC.

The Broncos led 14-10 at one stage but were hit by 18 unanswered points for Hull at the beginning of the second half.

The Broncos hit back with scores for Jordan Abdull and Rhys Williams and they had a chance to win it at the death with a penalty five metres out, only to fluff their lines and leave empty handed.

“It could have gone either way, that’s sport, but over the 80 we probably didn’t quite deserve it – we were a little bit soft – and didn’t do enough,” said Ward.

“We showed resilience, perseverance and character to still be in with a chance at the death, but ultimately we didn’t come out with energy after half-time and that early score for them didn’t help either.

“There’s a feeling of this being a missed opportunity, especially given how close we did come in the end, but we’ll be back in Tuesday to have a look at the video and start to put things right on the field from Wednesday onwards.

“Of course, the boys are annoyed, and some of them will have a little sulk, but that’s only natural. By the time the Huddersfield game comes round, though, there’s no doubt we’ll be bang up for it and I have no doubt it’ll be a positive week around the place.”

Hull are up to fifth in the table and had Josh Griffin to thank after his two tries, while there were further scores for Carlos Tuimavave, Jordan Thompson, Albert Kelly and Bureta Faraimo.
And boss Lee Radford hailed their sprit and togetherness for seeing out a tough game ahead of Friday’s clash with second-placed Warrington Wolves.

“We got challenged like we knew we would do to, and it’s pleasing to come out the other end with a win,” he said.

“They (Broncos) will come at you for 80 minutes, and you can’t be impatient because they’ll hurt you, and neither can you try and cheat them of points, because they’ll just keep coming at you. You have to be ready to go against these.

“The surroundings here are very different to what we’re used to, and it’ll certainly be all-change against Warrington next week, where we’ll be presented with a very different challenge.

“The big thing for us at half-time was the need to start challenging them up the middle, because their line speed was excellent. 

“It’s a short turnaround now before the Warrington game, and that’ll be fast, physical, aggressive. There’s a few we’ll have to have a look at in the week, but I think Jamie Shaul will definitely be out as he was away with the fairies when he came off.”