“They’re knocking ‘em all down and turning ‘em into flats”

I’d been meaning to go and watch Hunslet at some point this year for a while now. They’re back in the Championship after a few years away having unexpectedly won promotion to the second tier via the play-offs in coach Dean Muir’s first year in charge last season. They’ve managed quite a high-profile recruitment drive, bringing in Super League experience in Greg Eden and Lee Gaskell, as well as some solid Championship players in Kevin Larroyer and Lachlan Hanneghan.

Their opponents at the South Leeds Stadium were London Broncos. Like Hunslet, they returned to the Championship this season, but through relegation from Super League, rather than promotion from the league below. There were worries for London when they dropped out of Super League last season. Then-owner David Hughes announced he was withdrawing his investment from the club, ending a partnership that lasted nearly three decades. At the start of 2025, London’s squad was threadbare, with some solid quality in their starting 13 but not much beyond that. Recently, Leeds CEO Gary Hetherington was unveiled as a director of the club, unveiling a five-year plan for a “new vision of rugby league in London”. With, seemingly, some stability of the pitch secured, they’ve been able to add a couple of players from the French elite competition and a couple of loan signings from Super League. While they’ve found results hard to come by, there’s a sense of optimism that they’ll do enough to remain in the division this year and be able to use this as a building block for the future.

I got off my bus at the Corn Exchange in Leeds and decided I’d walk the rest of the way to Hunslet. Down through the Calls and over the Leeds Bridge, and I was south of the river. Crossing the bridge from Leeds into Hunslet a decade or so ago, you’d have been greeted by Tetley’s Brewery. While the art-deco office headquarters remain, the rest of the brewery has long gone. The industrial roots of Hunslet are slowly being diminished. Tetley’s has gone and been replaced by Aire Park. High density, red brick houses have been replaced with, well, high density, red brick flats and apartments. They’ve got a lovely Hibiscus flower sculpture though, mind.

Further evidence of the industrial change in Hunslet can be found along Hunslet Road. The Printworks building has been repurposed by Leeds City College, the EJ Arnold and Sons factory was pulled down to make way for a Costco, and the Airebank Works on South Accommodation Road has become an indoor go karting track. While some buildings and works offer a nod to Hunslet industrial and mucky past, like most rugby league areas, its place in the world doesn’t seem as certain as it once was.

Just off Hunslet Road, you’ll find the Garden Gate. A beautiful looking pub on the outside, and equally as nice on the inside. I’d got in my head that this was where Hunslet fans congregated before games. Reading online since visiting, however, it seems the pub has recently been closed for a year or so and is now a long way away from its former glories. It seemed like they were just serving bottles and cans at the bar, despite the pub’s previous CAMRA seal of approval. After finding out at the bar that it was cash only, it provided an opportunity to make a swift exit “in search of a cash machine”. I left and decided to walk up to the ground instead.

Hunslet RLFC moved to the South Leeds Stadium in 1995, just before the start of the Super League era. The club experienced a few years of relative success, winning the Division Two title in 1997, and then winning the Northern Ford Premiership in 1999. But as part of the RFL’s Framing the Future edict, Hunslet were denied entry to Super League. On-field performance not being enough to win promotion? Whatever will they think of next? Hunslet’s fortunes quickly fell off a cliff, and before long they were relegated back to Division Two. In the late 90s, the club’s ambition was to make the Super League. It’s hard to tell if that ambition remains today. 

I made it to the stadium, but more importantly, I had made it to the Phoenix Bar; Hunslet’s on-site, and official, supporters bar. While South Leeds Stadium may seem like a very-Council leisure centre looking place (which is exactly what it is), the Phoenix Bar is a lovely space. And they had Three Swords and Virtuous on. Though kick off was still over an hour and half away, the room was filling up nicely. I sat by myself in a corner, surrounded by display boards detailing Hunslet’s history and former greats. Around the room, mates sat around tables talking toot. “Tee Ritson’s not playing for Barrow this weekend. He’s not even in the squad,” one said as the inquest into Hunslet’s 58-0 loss at home to Barrow last time out resumed. Conversations weren’t strictly kept to rugby. “They’re knocking ‘em all down and turning ‘em into flats,” another remarked — one of the ten phrases northerners are allowed to say. I didn’t hear any context to this conversation, so who knows precisely where or what she meant, but I understood entirely.

As the room filled up and people congregated in groups around me, the exchanges continued. “How am I doing? I was alright until I saw you,” one bloke entered a conversation with. I was starting to think I was sticking out. My anxieties kicked in. I imagined them saying, “Who’s the lad with the pint of IPA sitting by himself?” “Why doesn’t he know anyone?” “He’s not from London, is he?!” I wasn’t so worried about looking like a loner, but I’ll be damned if I let anyone confuse me for a Londoner. The Broncos seemed to have brought a few fans up, all donned in club colours. While rugby league in London may have been mishandled by administrators and those in control of the game, the endeavour and passion of the fans cannot be questioned.

Not wanting to be outcast as some cockney, I left the bar and made my way through to the stand. It feels a strange environment for a rugby league game. The archetypal rugby ground is a mostly terraced group with its stands right on top of the pitch. South Leeds Stadium’s grandstand is all seater, separated from the pitch by an athletics track. As a Loiner, I may be biased, but I think you’ll be hard pressed to find a better view from any other rugby ground in the country, although the accompanying soundtrack over the PA system might not be the best. Is there a reason why the George of the Jungle theme song was played?

Early differences in both teams could be seen from the warm-up. London had a bigger set of lads. Sadiq Adebiyi, Lewis Bienik and Marcus Stock all played in Super League for the Broncos last season, and that difference in physicality was obvious to see. While Hunslet warmed up on the pitch in the direct sunlight and heat, London got their warm-ups and stretches done on the shaded athletics track. Would this be the thing to make all the difference in today’s game?

Before long, it was three o’clock and time for kick off. And before long, Hunslet had hit the front. Captain Harvey Hallas opened the scoring in the third minute, “falling over the line” as his coach Dean Muir put it in his post-match interview. After being nilled at home in their previous game, this was exactly the start Hunslet needed. What they didn’t need, however, was to drop the ball on the first play following the subsequent kick off. London were gifted field position, something that would occur throughout the game, but they weren’t able to capitalise at the first time of asking.

London had to wait another ten minutes before they scored their opening points. The Broncos were piggybacked up field following a penalty. On the fifth tackle, they ran the power play, with Aussie halves Luke Polselli and Connor O’Beirne linking up down the short side to put Hull KR loanee Louis Gorman in for his first of four tries in the game. He added his second try five minutes later, again Polselli and O’Beirne linking up down the short side before tipping the ball onto Gorman to stroll in. Further tries from Polselli, winger Liam Tindall and Leeds loanee Jack Smith put London into a 26-6 halftime lead.

Ill-discipline, errors and, at best, passive defence from Hunslet helped London no end. In his post-match interview on the club’s YouTube channel, Muir lamented: “It just proves what we’ve been saying for a number of weeks, that some people in here are not good enough at this level.” Judging by the Hunslet fans' reactions near me, it wasn’t that the players weren’t good enough, it was that they weren’t trying hard enough.

I feel like the “not good enough” comments were harsh from Muir, who was obviously frustrated at his team’s fortunes. They’ve built a young squad and are having to rely on loan players to help bridge gaps. They’re a young and inexperienced team playing in a decent division. Before the season started, many would have tipped Hunslet to finish bottom of the league. And while they wouldn’t want to be there, they’re fulfilling that expectation.

Half-time couldn’t come soon enough for Hunslet. They’d been out-played, out-enthused, out-muscled and out-scored. The London pack had made metres for fun through Hunslet’s middle. Sadiq Adebiyi and Marcus Stock particularly impressed and seemed a step above the physicality of Hunslet. As the hooter went for half time, London-grouped together and jogged off the pitch as a team. Hunslet looked physically and mentally knackered as they went off. To make matters worse, Lee Gaskell didn’t come out for the second half. Injuries had already meant the experienced heads of Greg Eden, Lachlan Hanneghan and Kevin Larroyer missed the game. Losing Gaskell meant they had to rotate and young hooker Mason Corbett went into the halves.

The start of the second half was spritelier from Hunslet. They attacked with much better intent, and London returned the favour by giving away penalties of their own. Hunslet got the first chance to score points of the second half, but true to form, knocked on five metres away from the tryline.

The improved Hunslet attitude didn’t last long, conceding the first try of the second half about ten minutes in. From a scrum ten metres out, London were able to put together the easiest of draw-and-pass moves for Liam Tindall to walk in unopposed. “This is so bad,” one of the lads in front of me remarked. “It’s not even that good.”

O’Beirne went over next, again penalties helping London up field. He was the standout player of the game. While the time and space gifted to him by Hunslet’s defence helped, he was in the middle of everything that London’s attack did. He’s got a great knack of dropping a shoulder and finding some space before offloading the ball and finding a teammate. Ben Hursey-Hord scored next, and then Gorman got his hat-trick after O’Beirne dropped his shoulder, found some space and offloaded to Gorman to let him run it in. In the twenty minutes following the restart, London were up to fifty. After that score, the players were treated to a water break, providing the Hunslet fans around me with a chance to jeer their own team. “They don’t deserve a water break, they’ve not done owt.”

Frustration cost Hunslet further, going down to twelve men for persistent penalties. Jack Smith scored next for the Broncos. In the process of scoring, he copped a late push in the ribs from Hunslet centre Ryan Westerman and we had a bit of handbags. Nowt that’d trouble the skin on your rice pudding though. 

For the first (but not the last) time that afternoon, I heard a Hunslet fan say “he’s got to go today” after a London try. They were referring to the coach. Dean Muir’s overachieved with this team, bringing them out of League One at the first time of asking. There’s no doubt the budgets they’re running on are less than their Championship rivals. As mentioned previously, Hunslet are where most would have expected them to be. They were promoted from League One in mid-October, a long time after recruitment was completed by most teams, and were left with slim pickings. Muir has arguably been a cliched victim of his own success.

London kept scoring and showed no signs of mercy, Ethan Natoli crossing for the first of three tries in the last five minutes. Jack Smith then broke from his own half and looked to be running in unopposed, but he decided to take the piss instead. He slowed down to find an unnecessary pass inside to Alex Walker who went in for his 100th career try. After the game, Walker said: “Jack’s my new favourite player.”

Gorman finished the scoring in the last minute with his fourth of the game. The final score was 72-6 to London. I wasn’t even able to get a photo of the score board as they began to dismantle it after the last try.

As I was leaving the ground, Hunslet fans were airing their grievances with each other. Some shouting down to the team, others just questioning what was happening among themselves. The consensus was “he has to go”. Hunslet had just conceded 130 points in two games. Those two games against Barrow and London were probably a couple of home games that Hunslet believed they’d be able to win in a season when wins would be scarce. Instead, they were thumped and are now rooted to the bottom of the table.

It’s hard to judge a team off one performance, but even harder when there's an awful lot of the first team squad not featuring. Injuries have cost Hunslet, and they have had to rely on youngsters from Super League clubs to plug gaps. They were also hurt when hooker Kobe Rugless controversially moved to Salford the other week. Much like their ever-changing area around them, Hunslet’s place in the rugby league world doesn’t look as certain as it once was. Are they aspiring to get into Super League? Are they happy to appear in the Championship for one season in every few? Are they content with filling their squad out with Super League youngsters on loan? What’s the aim here?

On the other hand, the London fans were in great spirits after the final whistle. A big win after nine defeats won’t turn their season around, but there’s plenty to be positive about. Gary Hetherington will surely be on the lookout for deals to be done to strengthen his new side, but there’s plenty to work with already. They’ve built a team around players who have come through the London ranks. Alex Walker, Lewis Bienik, Sadiq Adebiyi and Will Lovell all came through the Broncos academy system and are now the older heads who some of the younger loanees can look up to. Though only two points above Hunslet in the league now, London should be fine come the end of the season. Their next steps will be intriguing. As mentioned earlier, Hetherington has promised a “new vision” for rugby league in the capital, but we’re still not sure what this exactly is. There’s been talk of NRL involvement, talk of a rebrand. It’s all just talk for now, but no one has a better track record of club administration in this sport than Hetherington. You wouldn’t bet against London being back in Super League sometime soon if the competition goes to fourteen teams as rumoured.

On the morning after the game, Hunslet released a statement to say they had ‘parted company’ with Muir. Amid poor results and fan pressure, it felt inevitable. There’s now a big question mark over how Hunslet go forward. Muir was brought in from amateur club West Bowling. Will the club be looking to recruit from the community game again? Like most things at this level of rugby league, money is the biggest factor. It’s unlikely that they’d be able to pay for someone currently in a job. Saving Hunslet from the drop at this point may be an impossible task, but, similarly to London, from the outside looking in, it’ll be interesting to see how the higher ups attempt to sort this out. If they need any help, there were plenty of fans sitting around me with an idea or two on how to fix it. ⬧