Rugby League: Broncos spoil Aston's homecoming

Sheffield Eagles 10 London Broncos 42

They played "welcome home" by that other illustrious Sheffield duo, Peters and Lee, to hail Mark Aston's return to partner Ryan Sheridan at half-back for the Eagles.

After 80 minutes, he must have wondered what he had returned to after his year with Featherstone, so comprehensively were Sheffield outplayed by a London side who, after two matches in the previous week, might have been expected to look weary.

On the contrary, London, with a strong wind behind them, took off in the second half with their left winger, Evan Cochrane, scoring an easy haul of four tries.

There were early signs that Aston and Sheridan could forge a productive partnership and Aston's boot even put Sheffield ahead with two penalties.

London quickly put their disappointing performance at Oldham behind them, however, Leo Dynevor's grubber kick sending in Ben Walker and Peter Gill's pass releasing the newly arrived Paul Hauff for tries which Julian O'Neill improved.

Aston's clever kick produced a try for Sheridan immediately before half- time, but it was ominous for Sheffield that they trailed by two points after 40 minutes with a gale at their backs.

A neat pass from Walker gave Hauff his second try five minutes into the second half and the rest was virtually a benefit performance for Cochrane.

He went through some weak tackling for his first try, profited from simple ball movement along the back line for his second and followed Gill to take his passes and go over unmolested for the remaining two - all in the space of 24 minutes.

Sheffield Eagles: Lyon; Senior, Stott, Gamson, Sodje (Whakarau, 65); Sheridan, Aston; Broadbent, Lawless, Cook, Carr, Hughes (Banquet, 53), Farrell (Lawford h-t).

London Broncos: Hauff; Butt, O'Neill, Meyer, Cochrane; Walker, Dynevor; Mestrov (Bryant, 58), O'Donnell (Langer, 67), Shaw (Bawden, 55), Rosolen, Gill, McKenna.

Referee: R Smith (Castleford).