Whitehaven will have made the long trip back home bemoaning their inability to put away an error-prone London team.

Storm Ciara, which caused so much trouble around the country, hit West London around 2.30pm – just after the London Fire Brigade had cleared a clubhouse fire, with the very real chance of the the game, or at least a prompt kick-off, being in doubt.

For more than an hour, the Cumbrians were not only more than a match for their illustrious opponents – whose scalps at Ealing last season included Wigan and St Helens, twice – but they were the better team.

Indeed, such was Haven’s control of the game, London did not play the ball inside the attacking half until the 19th minute.

By this time Haven were two points to the good, James Newton kicking a penalty from 10 metres out.

But London, having got into attacking positions, then showed their clinical nature.

After Josh Walters had a try ruled out for obstruction, he took another scoring chance in the 21st minute.

Five minutes later, alarm bells were ringing as Tuoyo Egodo crossed in the left corner. But Haven hit back twice to take the lead at half time.

The scores came on the back of London errors, with Olsi Krasniqi’s knock-on being parlayed into a score for Tom Walker.

Then, Rob Butler got frustrated and lashed out at Karl Olstrom and he went to the bin for 10 minutes.

Taking advantage of the extra man, Newton kicked a superb 40-20 and from the second set Ellis Gillam went over from close range.

On London’s first possession of the second half, they lost the ball five metres from their own line, with Callum Phillips snapping it up and diving over the line.

It meant Haven had scored 18 unanswered points, and London were rocking.

The Broncos’ reaction took a while to come, and they benefitted from the weather calming down.

The rain, almost biblically horizontal just before the break, was now a drizzle and the wind was down to less than half the strength of the opening half.

Rhys Curran marked his 100th game in the Northern Hemisphere with an assist for Egodo to score his second try in the left corner after 48 minutes, but Kieran Dixon’s second miss kept Haven a score to the good.

The Haven defence was very good, but they were running out of gas a little.

Dion Aiye had been a big factor in the first half but London closed him down well.

Midway through the second half, the Broncos took the lead for good when Walters made a powerful break down the left side and drew in Sam Forrester.

He had Egodo to his left, looking for a hat-trick, and Matty Fozard to his right. The latter took the pass and burst over.

Phillips then suffered what looked like a game-ending injury, but was able to return after a few minutes of treatment.

There was one last chance for Haven to get back into the game. Forcing a repeat set, they were knocking on the door, but Jessie Joe Parker, on the last tackle, found three black shirts waiting to stop him short of the line.

Then, in the final few minutes, it all went wrong for Haven when a long kick downfield from Cory Aston was mishandled by Olstrom and Rob Hindmarsh crashed over.

Finally, Dixon – who had been kept relatively quiet all afternoon – found a gap, sprinted through, and made his conversion a mere formality.

So it was a second defeat for Haven, but they gave the Broncos a real fight and didn’t deserve the 16-point defeat.