Leeds snatch golden-point win over London

Betfred Super League

London (12) 20

Tries: Campagnolo, Waine, Kershaw, Natoli Goals: Leyland 2

Leeds (14) 21

Tries: Martin 3 Goals: Martin 4 Drop-goal: Croft

A Rhyse Martin-inspired Leeds Rhinos scraped past bottom side London Broncos in golden-point extra time to keep alive their hopes of making Super League's top six.

The Papua New Guinea international was instrumental in his side's narrow win, scoring 20 points with three tries and four goals.

Australian Brodie Croft kicked the winning drop-goal in extra time to seal the success after London's Jack Campagnolo hit the crossbar with his effort at the other end.

Leeds are in eighth spot, but a point behind sixth-placed Leigh, while the Broncos remain rooted to the foot of the table.

London started the livelier and went in front after Campagnolo dropped his shoulder past prop Justin Sangare to score near the sticks.

In an error-riddled performance, Rhinos were indebted to Martin for his heroics.

First, his superb juggling skills, along with a fortuitous bounce of the ball, allowed him to dot down for Rhinos.

Then, following a superb kick from Matt Frawley over the top of the Broncos defence, the Hull KR-bound second-row was able to collect and dive over in the corner.

After converting his own second try, Martin surpassed 1,000 points for Rhinos since joining in 2019.

Rhyse Martin scored a hat-trick of tries and kicked four goals in Leeds Rhinos' narrow win

Just before the break, Emmanuel Waine capitalised on indecision from the Rhinos backline to reduce the arrears to two points.

Broncos started the second half where they left off and the impressive Lee Kershaw scored in the corner after collecting a defence-splitting pass from Campagnolo.

With 17 minutes left, Martin broke Campagnolo's tackle to run under the posts to complete his hat-trick and restore Rhinos' lead.

As the game reached its climax, Kershaw broke clear of the Rhinos' defence and before he was taken out of touch, he was able to expertly pass the ball back to Ethan Natoli to dive over to level at 20-20.

An Oli Leyland conversion hit the right upright and following Campagnolo's drop-goal effort, which smashed the underside of the crossbar, Croft won the match with just over one minute of the extra period to play.

London Broncos head coach Mike Eccles on the future of the club:

"That's the last time we'll see London in the foreseeable if things stay as they are.

"It's been our pleasure to bring Super League back to London. I think days like that today are amazing, fantastic crowd, fantastic day out."

Leeds Rhinos head coach Brad Arthur told BBC Radio Leeds:

"They [London Broncos] didn't deserve to lose. They were the better team. They hit the crossbar, they were unlucky.

"We're going home with the two points but we're not happy about how it happened. If we didn't, our season was over so we've got to make the most of that now."

London: Rourke, Kershaw, Natoli, Bassett, Miloudi, Leyland, Campagnolo, Butler, Davis, Kennedy, Lovell, Adebyi, Stock.

Interchanges: Tison, Bienek, Jones, Waine.

Leeds: Miller, Fusitu'a, Momirovski, Newman, Edgell, Croft, Frawley, Lisone, Ackers, Sangare, McDonnell, Martin, Smith.

Interchanges: Nicholson-Watton, Bentley, O'Connor, Donaldson.

Referee: Marcus Griffiths.