Impressive Fax give Broncos a rough ride

Fax were playing at the home of Keighley Cougars while the pitch at The Shay recovers from a mid-season face lift.

The change of venue didn’t faze Richard Marshall’s men, who have played their previous five games away from home, as they ran in five tries in a first half rout.

It wasn’t all plain sailing though, with Rhys Williams giving the side from the capital the lead following a cut out pass from William Barthau.

Straight from the restart Steve Tyrer’s kick-off hit the post protector and the ball fell back to the grateful blue and whites.

On the last play of the resulting set Scott Murrell’s kick was palmed down by Tyrer to Dane Manning, who scored a carbon copy of his score at Dewsbury the previous week.

Fax, playing up the slight slope, hit the front with Ben Kaye scooting over from dummy half in spite of the attentions of opposing hooker Andrew Henderson.

Henderson, the player coach at the Broncos, was powerless as Ben Johnston added a third to help Fax roar into a 12 point-lead.

The travelling Halifax support made their voices heard when Tyrer extended the lead further, collecting a cute kick from Johnston to pounce in the corner.

Murrell was in fine form and his outrageous dummy paved the way for James Saltonstall to score under the posts.

That left Fax leading by 24 points at the break.

Marshall’s side started slowly in the second period with Williams capitalising to score in the corner.

Straight from the restart Fax were in again. There was chaos in the away ranks and Ross Divorty was the right man in the right place and touched down with ease.

The side from the capital didn’t give up. with Henderson pulling the strings, Oscar Thomas jinked his way over from short range.

A comeback looked on the cards with just over 10 minutes remaining when goal kicker Wes Naiqama went over following a neat offload by Thomas.

However, the game was sealed with a late score from replacement Divorty, who crashed over from short range following Murrell’s 40/20.

Australian Mitch Cahalane capped a fine performance with a solo try towards the end to seal a eight-try win for Marshall’s improvers.

Fax: Saltonstall, Potts, Heaton, Tyrer, Saxton; Johnston, Murrell; Tangata, Kaye, Cahalane, Moore,Manning, A Robinson. SUBS: Bracek, Spencer, Divorty, C Robinson.

London: Kear, Williams, Hellewell, Naiqama, Macani, Barthau, Gilmore, Walker, Henderson,Thackray, Minichella, Garside, Lovergrove. SUBS: Nasso, Thomas, Wallace, Riley.