Widnes travel to the capital in search of a shock first round win
The 2026 Championship campaign gets underway on Sunday for Widnes against competition favourites London Broncos.
The challenge doesn’t get much tougher on the opening day for Widnes, but the Vikings will take heart from last years round one 18-14 shock victory over Toulouse.
Key Half-back Tom Gilmore remains absent for the game still recovering from an off season operation.
Widnes will also be without Adam Lawton who is recovering from a Knee injury and Danny Langtree who is nursing a Pectoral injury.
Morgan McWhirter has returned from Australia and is available for Sunday’s game.
As for London only 3 players are missing from there 1-17 squad numbers.
Former Leeds Winger Liam Tindall is absent, he is expected to be replaced by towering youngster Neil Tchamambe on loan from Wakefield.
Meanwhile new PNG international recruits Epel Kapinias and Finley Glare also miss out on selection.
The absence of Glare will likely mean Hooker Sam Davis will play long minutes in the middle of the pitch, whilst Lewis Bienek is a likely replacement for Kapinias.
Lesson’s learned and key decisions
It was a difficult evening for Widnes against a strong Warrington team. Being on the wrong end of a heavy 50-12 score line, lessons will have to be learned to take into Sunday’s game.
Widnes will no doubt be concentrating on goal line defence throughout the week. Warrington raced into a 28-0 half time lead with little evidence on display the Vikings could defend their try line.
With the absence of Tom Gilmore it will be intriguing to see which Half-back combination will be given the green light by Coleman.
Throughout the first half against Warrington, ball movement was slow and the switch of Connell to Full-back and Toby Hughes to Half-back seemed to make the Vikings click in attack.
Despite impressing in the later stages, new recruit Toby Hughes will appear on loan for Salford this week.
Coleman will have a decision to make of sticking with the partnership of Abdull and Lyons or deploying Jack Owens in the middle to direct traffic as a short term solution, to cover the absence of Gilmore.
One to watch (Morea Morea)
The first one to watch of the season goes to lively Full-back Morea Morea.
The 24 year-old was once a target of Leigh Leopards prior to making the move to the capital.
His blistering pace and the running threat could ignite the Championship once pitches firm up.
Morea Morea spent three seasons with the PNG Hunters before making the move to Central Queensland Capras in 2025.
He has also enjoyed success at international level lifting the 2025 pacific Bowl with the Kummels, scoring in games against Fiji and the Cook Islands.
He is no doubt one of the top talents arriving in the Championship and has all the ingredients to create havoc for defences.
Previous 5 meetings
Since 1981 the two teams have met on 32 occasions with London picking up 18 wins compared to the 14 wins of Widnes
- Widnes Vikings 10-20 London Broncos – September 14th 2025
- London Broncos 10-12 Widnes Vikings – May 31st 2025
- London Broncos 52-12 Widnes Vikings – September 10th 2023
- Widnes Vikings 18-26 London Broncos – June 4th 2023
- Widnes Vikings 26-22 London Broncos – June 26th 2022
Trivia
- Luke Dorn and Ryan Ince both share scoring 4 tries in one game in the fixture.
- London boast the biggest winning margin in the fixture securing a 68-10 home win back in September 2005
Quiz
