New-look London Broncos draw bumper crowd for successful season opener as figure revealed

4,380 fans packed into Plough Lane to watch the new-look London Broncos’ first game of the season on Sunday afternoon as they beat Widnes Vikings 44-12.

London were taken over by a group including wealthy Australian businessman Grant Wechsel and NRL icon Darren Lockyer during the off-season.

Papua New Guinea boss Jason Demetriou was swiftly recruited as the Broncos‘ new head coach, with an influx of talent heading to the capital for 2026, including a plethora of Kumuls.

The capital club were denied entry into a newly-expanded 14-club Super League for 2026, but pressed on with their reinvigoration project regardless, and are now the red-hot favourites to dominate the second tier this term.

Sunday showed exactly why, with Widnes swept aside comfortably.

Want more Love Rugby League? Add us as a preferred source on Google and ensure you never miss our exclusives and breaking news!</strong

New-look London Broncos draw bumper crowd for successful season opener

Just four of the 18-man squad named by Demetriou for his first game in charge were London players last season, and only two of those featured in the starting line-up: half-back Connor O’Beirne and utility forward Sadiq Adebiyi, who featured at loose.

An off-season filled with new arrivals, including skipper Reagan Campbell-Gillard, did not include any pre-season friendlies. The Broncos had been set to travel to Keighley Cougars for a hit-out earlier this month, but Storm Goretti put paid to those plans.

That lack of game preparation perhaps reared its head in a first half which only ended with Widnes trailing by four points at 16-12.

The Vikings are among the clubs expecting to challenge at the top end of the Championship this term, and managed to breach London’s defence twice, seeing Jordan Johnstone and Sam Wilde score tries.

In the second half though, it was all one-way traffic as the Broncos went on to score 28 unanswered points, ensuring the on-field result would be a wholly comfortable one on a day filled with positives in all aspects.

PNG pair Alex Max and Robert Mathias were among those on the scoresheet for the hosts alongside skipper Campbell-Gillard, a man who left the NRL behind to form a huge part of this new era in the capital.

Underlining the progress made in a short time, there were only three London home games during the 2024 campaign they spent in Super League which drew a bigger crowd than this, and of those took place elsewhere at Twickenham Stoop against St Helens.

It must be noted that a healthy number of Widnes fans helped to bolster Sunday’s attendance, but if this is a sign of things to come in the capital, Wechsel and Lockyer look to have cracked the code!