Rea - Back on the bike, now shift
up a gear

London Broncos have suffered a set back ahead of Saturday night's Tetley's Super League 'home opener' against St Helens, but coach Tony Rea remains confident that his team will 'shift up another gear' at Griffin Park.

Close-season signing, Andrew Hart, who joined the Broncos from South Sydney in January, yesterday suffered a severe chest injury in the Broncos gym at Brunel University.

"It was a routine press that went wrong," said Hart. "I was doing a heavy weight at low rep on the bench and the bar just slipped."

I didn't really have time to adjust to absorb the impact. The soft tissue bruising is the main concern. There doesn't seem to be any bone damage so I guess I'm pretty lucky in one respect."

Despite the injury to one of Rea's key forwards, he is adamant that his team will show even more improvement on Saturday night: "Last Sunday it was a case of getting back on the bike and fixing what needed to be fixed.

We did that, and we came away with a well executed win."

This week it's a case of maintaining that progress, and moving up a gear. I'm sure that's what you will see."

Other than Andrew, our week has been good. The team is in a very positive frame of mind and that's a good sign."

Off the pitch there is a lot of talk around town about the game and that's also a good sign. It should be a great event."

Rea has kept the same team that defeated Salford last Sunday, however, to cover for Hart should he not play, is Andy McNally named as eighteenth man. Hart will be given until Saturday afternoon to prove his fitness.

In other news, the club will announce its new team sponsorship arrangement tomorrow (Friday).

Any 'first timer' to the game on Saturday night is asked to head straight for the Broncos new Welcome Point.

According to Community Manager, Suzanne Stirton: "It's all part and parcel of our new 'try it now' marketing campaign.

Ideally, we would like to meet and greet every new supporter. That's not logistically feasible but we are going to make quite an effort to this end."

We're very pleased with the way we have shaped our new match day product and our customer relations plans are all about attracting those first time rugby league fans and then developing a higher level of involvement."

Team as follows:

Paul Sykes, Jon Wells, Rob Jackson, Mark O'Halloran, Nigel Roy, Radney Bowker, Dennis Moran, Steve Trindall, Neil Budworth, Steele Retchless, (Andrew Hart), Joe Mbu, Jim Dymock ?

Substitutes: Andrew Brocklehurst, Tommy Haughey, Mitch Stringer, Francis Stephenson, (Andrew McNally)

London Broncos first home game in Tetley's Super League IX is against St Helens at 6pm on Saturday 6th March at Griffin Park - tickets for this big season opener can now be bought online at www.londonbroncos.co.uk or through the ticket booking hotline: 0871 222 1657.

Advance ticket sales will close at 5.30pm tomorrow. There will be some tickets available to purchase at the turnstile, however, the 'prime' viewing areas continue to sell well.

Gates open at 4.30pm.