Sandercock: We had to fight back

With a 22-4 half-time lead, the Robins appeared on course for a comfortable victory and while that proved to be the case, London did cause some unease at the KC Lightstream Stadium by reducing the deficit to six points at the beginning of the second half with two converted Alex Foster tries.

But that was as close as the Broncos would come as Hull KR scored 26 unanswered points to claim a 48-16 win that moved them back into the First Utility Super League play-off places.

Asked if he was worried about London’s fightback, Sandercock said: “I wasn’t worried, I was disappointed that we conceded those couple of tries but with the quality of players in our side, I was expecting us to get away with it.

“We’ve got to give some credit to London, I thought they came back and played well. We probably turned over a bit of ball and gave away quite a few penalties and they got into the game.

“We switched off in the second half, no doubt about it, and to London’s credit they came storming back in but I was really pleased with our response after that.

“We put our foot down and scored some nice tries. To score those points late in the game is very pleasing.”

On-loan St Helens winger Ade Gardner, Craig Hall and Josh Hodgson all touched down twice while there were also tries for Neville Costigan, Adam Walker and Kevin Larroyer, with Travis Burns adding six conversions to hand the Broncos their 14th straight defeat this season.

Sandercock added: “I was pleased with all parts of the game except the 10-15 minutes in the second half where we just dropped our concentration levels.

“I was a little bit concerned before the game. London are closing in on a win and they’re going to win some games this season.

“I thought today, if we’re not switched on, was going to be a tough day.”

Defeat was London coach Joe Grima’s third in a row since taking the reins from Tony Rea earlier this month.

The Broncos have shown notable improvement in recent weeks, running Huddersfield and Catalan Dragons close in their last two outings, and their comeback against the Robins gave Grima some encouragement.

“I was really pleased with how they started that second half, it was really positive,” he said.

“(But) we probably beat ourselves a little bit.

“We got ourselves back in the game in the first 10 minutes of that second half but just kept going back to silly mistakes.

“I’m certainly proud of the effort, I’m just not proud of the execution.”

He added: “I thought the players responded to what we spoke about at half-time. It was more of a case of them challenging them. I can’t go out there and do it for them, it’s got to come from within.”

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Sandercock: We had to fight back