Swinton Lions put in a strong performance in the race against relegation but were comfortably beaten to the line by the London Broncos at Trailfinders Sports Club.
Centre Chris Hankinson scored his 200th point for the Lions since joining the club in 2017.
London Broncos 58-22 Swinton Lions
The Broncos kept up their good form with a victory but the Lions were in the match for long periods and were unlucky to be behind at the break.
London got off to the better start when a good passing movement ended with Rhys Williams scoring after four minutes in the left corner, but the conversion attempt from Dixon drifted wide. The Lions quickly hit back when some good build up saw Chris Hankinson score his one hundredth point of the season when he went over on the left and landed the conversion to put his side in the lead.
Ben Austin got injured on halfway and had to leave the field and from the resulting penalty the Lions scored their second try when Rhodri Lloyd sent Joe Brown in at the corner but this time the conversion was missed.
London hit back to level on fifteen minutes when Dixon collected a Lions bomb kick in his own ten and raced away to score by the posts and convert his own try and then they took the lead when Cunningham broke clear to score by the posts and again the conversion was good.
The try of the match came to the Lions five minutes before the break, when Lloyd broke several tackles to feed Brown to score his second and Hankinson converted for his two hundredth career point for the Lions. However the Swinton defence fell asleep in the dying seconds of the half when Sammut kicked through by the posts to also win the race to score with Dixon on target again as the hooter sounded.
Broncos had Eddie Battye sent to the sin bin early in the second half for a slap on Aaron Hall but they still managed to run in two tries while he was off with Kear and Pewhairangi both going over and Dixon kicking both.
The heat was taking its toll and the Lions let in four more tries in a nine-minute period midway through the half with Sammut, Davis, Pitt and Walker all going over and Dixon converted all of them, but the Lions were not giving in and Lloyd got Joe Brown over in the corner for his hat-trick and Hankinson converted off the touchline with just a couple of minutes remaining.
