South Wales recorded their first win in almost a year with an impressive victory against Skolars, though it was a poor performance by the home side who managed to drop the ball over the try line with no pressure on three separate occasions. It’s less than two months since the two sides met at New River when Skolars ran out 66-14 winners.
After a Will Lovell break had been penalised for crossing, Scorpions went into an early lead with a quick passing move across the line to the right for Matthew Wilcox to score. That wouldn’t have worried Skolars who had gone behind early in the game between the two sides at New River two months ago. They forced an error at the kick off. After a goal line drop out Scorpions conceded a penalty on the first tackle and Skolars took advantage through Lovell.
The visitors scored again through Michael Connor after a Jack Pring break from deep in his own half. Another error early in the tackle count saw them lose possession again, but after Dave Williams was held up they counterattacked with Kyle Scrivens touching down. He nearly scored again soon afterwards but Wilcox’s final pass was forward.
Skolars also missed out when Courtney Davies broke through the defence but then unaccountably lost the ball grounding the ball. But they pulled the scoreline back with a cutout pass from James Kelly for Mufaro Mvududu to score before the break. They looked to be back in the game seven minutes into the second half. They won a penalty a metre from the tryline. Martyn Smith looked for one of Skolars’ big forwards to take the ball, Scorpions rushed out from the line to stop those forwards, Smith simply turned round and popped the ball down. Davies made his only conversion of the day to narrow the margin to four points.
Twenty eight unanswered points for the visitors followed. Good backing up by Chris Vitalini saw him take a Greg Wilde pass. Wilde and Paul Emanuelli worked well at half back and the Scorpions were getting good yards with each set of six through their forwards with good kicks to pin Skolars back. In contrast the big Skolars pack could make few inroads in attack and some woeful kicking on the sixth tackle meant Scorpions could start each set of six strongly.
On the hour Emanuelli made a break before twice chipping and regathering the ball to score under the post putting his side 16 points up. The error count from Skolars continued. Macani came into the attacking line down the right, broke through the defence but dropped the ball before grounding it.
The result was clear before Connor scored his second try, but Skolars’ woes continued when the kick-off went out of play, with Connor Farrer scoring Scorpions eighth try of the day four minutes from time, with Emanuelli slotting over his seventh conversion.
There was still an opportunity for Skolars to spill another try opportunity, Mvududu being the third offender. The ironic cheers when Lovell did ground the ball for a try just before the hooter spoke volumes about the Skolars’ performance and the home fans gave more applause for the visitors as they walked off the pitch.
Skolars’ assistant coach Marcus Tobin did not shy away from the poor performance. ‘It’s very disappointing. We’ve put in good preparation during the week and there was no complacency ahead of playing the side at the bottom of the table. We got back in the game early in the second half but didn’t show composure and patience and didn’t help ourselves by bombing three tries.
LONDON SKOLARS
1 Illiess Macani
21 Judd Greenhalgh
4 Mufaro Mvududu
34 Martin Olima
3 John Paxton
7 Courtney Davies
6 James Kelly
31 Tely Pelo
9 Martyn Smith
10 David Williams
11 Will Lovell
12 Mike Worrincy
13 Olly Purslow
Subs (all used)
5 Sam Druce
8 Ryan McDonald
20 Erjon Dollapi
14 Lamont Bryan
Tries: Lovell (8,80), Mvududu (31), Smith (47)
Goals: Davies 1/4
SCORPIONS
1 Jordan Sheridan
4 Kyle Scrivens
3 Jack Pring
24 Matthew Wilcox
5 Chris Leyshon
6 Paul Emanuelli
7 Greg Wilde
23 Richard East
9 Connor Farrer
18 Harrison Elliott
14 Michael Connor
11 Barrie Phillips
10 Chris Vitalini
Subs
15 Owain Davies
22 Neil Dallimore
13 Ashley Bateman
16 Osian Phillips
Tries: Wilcox (5), Connor (15,93), Scrivens (19), Vitalini (57), Emanuelli (60), Wilde (64), Farrar (76)
Goals:
Penalty count: 10-7
Half-time: 8-18
Referee: Michael Woodhead
Attendance: 362
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 4-6, 4-10, 4-18, 8-18, 14-18, 14-22, 14-28, 14-30, 14-36, 14-40, 14-46, 18-46
