Seven-try Leigh overpower London Broncos

Betfred Super League

Leigh (22) 36

Tries: McIntosh, Amone, Leutele, Davis, Charnley, Lam, Hughes Goals: Hardaker 4

London (0) 6

Try: Rourke Goal: Leyland

Leigh piled on the misery for London Broncos as the brilliant Lachlan Lam masterminded a seven-try thumping of Super League's bottom club.

The Broncos have now won just one of their 18 games after winning promotion from the Championship last season.

Leigh have been hit-and-miss this campaign after proving to be the surprise package last year, but they made hay as tries from Darnell McIntosh, Tom Amone, Rocky Leutele and Matt Davis put them in charge before half-time.

Broncos improved in the second half as Josh Rourke grabbed a consolation try, but Josh Charnley, Gareth O’Brien, Lam and Jack Hughes underlined the Leopards’ superiority with further tries.

Lam was the undoubted star of the show on his 100th appearance, prompting and finessing everything that Leopards did, and giving a reminder of the slick attacking that made them such a hot property last season.

The visitors were under the cosh from the off, as McIntosh collected John Asoata’s cross-field kick to open the scoring early on, and Amone went over under the posts to put them in double figures after just 10 minutes.

Darnell McIntosh crossed first for Leigh

Lam teed up the excellent Leutele for another try on the left and Broncos contributed to their own woes when Rourke’s break gave them a rare foray deep into home territory. With Jack Camagnolo racing up his outside unopposed, Rourke inexplicably turned back infield and the chance was gone.

It underlined the gulf in quality between the top of the second flight and Super League, and Leigh rubbed that in when Kai O’Donnell made use of more Lam magic to send Matt Davis in for a try against his brother Sam’s team.

Leigh eased off the accelerator in the second half but a video review saw Charnley’s try awarded, before Camapgnolo’s high kick evaded Zak Hardaker and Rourke capitalised.

Lam benefited from a superb Gareth O’Brien run to secure a try of his own, and then went back to his creative role with another classy pass to send Hughes in for the final score.

Post-match reaction

Leigh head coach Adrian Lam on next week's game against St Helens:

"It's our season, really. They've been a great team for a long time so I know they'll respond but we've got to respond better.

"One week you're playing the bottom of the table, the next week you're playing one of the greatest champion sides of all-time. We're trying to find our own path. We're right on where we need to be.

"It's about us next week and making sure we give an 80-minute performance. We need to reflect the importance of where we are and what we need moving forward in the season."

London boss Mike Eccles:

"We're going to get relegated, we knew that seven months ago, we're going to lose players, there's a very uncertain future but we've had the same messages all year to prepare for them that.

"No one backs us to win any game. The bookies are telling you we'll get beat every week. We know the odds are heavily stacked against us.

"We're just going to stick together and keep competing. There will be no drop-off in that. You won't see us giving up. We've got another hard game at Hull KR next week. We'll keep marching on."

Leigh: Hardaker, McIntosh, Hanley, Leutele, Charnley, O'Brien, Lam, Amone, Dwyer, Mulhern, O'Donnell, Halton, Asiata.

Interchanges: Trout, Hughes, Brogan, Davis

London: Rourke, Kershaw, Natoli, Bassett, Macani, Leyland, Tison, Butler, S. Davis, Kennedy, Lovell, Adebiyi, Stock

Interchanges: Waine, Bienek, Parata, Campognolo

Referee: Liam Rush.