The two votes that brought relief to stricken Broncos
By Dave Hadfield - 06 March 2005
If a couple of votes had gone the other way at the Super League clubs' meeting at Huddersfield on Friday, Bradford and London would be having this afternoon off, rather than playing each other at Odsal. The Broncos, in fact, would be having every afternoon off. Their peers came so close to killing them off that the stun-gun was cocked and aimed.
London had to go in front of their peers to argue that a new company, set up to replace the one that went into liquidation with debts of £3m last week, should be allowed to carry on running the club.
At one stage, the game's outpost in the capital for the last 25 years was as good as shut down. With Bradford and Wigan in unholy alliance with lowlier clubs, who saw London as a lifeline from their own relegation fears, the arithmetic was against them.
Bradford and Leigh made it clear from the start that, for their different reasons, they would be voting against London. Others, including Wigan, favoured a points deduction. The crucial vote was whether they should be readmitted subject to conditions.
Hull, St Helens, Huddersfield and Warrington agreed that the Broncos had to be kept going. With Wigan and Salford lining up alongside Leigh and Bradford, that left Wakefield and Widnes holding the fate of London in their hands. They both abstained. Had they voted against, a quarter of a century of effort in London would have been just a memory.
However badly the club might have been run at various times, that would have been tragic. The game's national profile would have been permanently damaged and it would have been farcical to welcome a French team into Super League next year.
This season would have been reduced to a shambles, especially if an approach - not from the Rugby League but from other interested parties - to Castleford to take over their fixtures had come to anything. Cas were not competitive last season and are a lot weaker now.
London, as illustrated by last weekend's record victory over Wakefield, are genuine play-off material. Perhaps that determined some of the votes against them.
Bradford have the extra animus of the Vinnie Anderson affair driving them on. Like London, they want to sign the New Zealand international and that has created further bad blood between the clubs.
So the timing of their meeting today is perfect. The Bulls' coach, Brian Noble, has said all the right things about the Broncos' survival, but the London players know that, at another level, Bradford wanted them to be signing-on by now - either at the job centre or at other clubs. Their coach, Tony Rea, might just remind them of that today.
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