Skolars crashed to defeat by the All-Golds, conceding seven tries in a scappy encounter at New River Stadium.
The game started badly with Skolars having to drop out after an error from the All-Golds kick-off and the visitors swinging the ball to the left to open up a large gap for Callum Mulkeen to open the scoring.
They had to defend after another drop-out soon after and it wasn’t until the fourteenth minute that Skolars were able to get into their opponents half. Michael Sykes got to the tryline for the home side but lost the ball as he tried to get the ball out of the tackle. The All-Golds advanced upfield and again pushed the ball right for Mulkeen to score his second.
Skolars were unable to stop the All-Golds offloading in the tackle, and when Steve Parry broke from halfway, Phil Cowburn continued the move to score. Matt Bradley had an unsettled time at New River last year before leaving Skolars to return to the Cheltenham based side, but had a fine game organising his side and scored just before half-time, bouncing off the would be defenders before touching down.
With a twenty pointy deficit at the break, Skolars had much to do to turn the game, but they started to dominate the game, moving the ball left for Jimmy Morgan to go in at the corner. Jon Wallace, on his debut on dual registration from London Broncos, pushed his way over the tryiline and Sam Druce’s conversion reduced the margin to ten points.
However, Skolars comeback was ended when Jamie Murphy scored out wide Jamie Crowther barged through a tiring defense before two more Skolars old boys combined for the All-Golds final try as Olly Purlow burst through from half-way before offloading to Courtney Davies to score under the posts.
LONDON SKOLARS
1 Matt Cook
2 Jimmy Morgan
3 Aaron Small
4 Mike Benson
24 Judd Greenhalgh
6 James Anthony
7 Sam Druce
10 David Williams
9 Joel Wicks
10 Michael Sykes
11 Harvey Burnett
19 Craig Boot
13 Will Fairhurst
Subs (all used)
16 Will Lovell
20 Dave Ellison
17 Jon Wallace
15 Danny Burke
Tries: Morgan (42), Wallace (50)
Goals: Druce 1/2
ALL-GOLDS
23 Joe Martin
25 Ryan Pywell
3 Lewis Reece
1 Phil Cowburn
4 Callum Mulkeen
20 Courtney Davies
7 Matt Bradley
8 Olly Purslow
9 Steve Parry
13 Chris Vitalini
30 Emmerson Whittel
32 Brad England
18 Jamie Crowther
Subs (all used)
33 Jamie Murphy
14 Joe McClean
19 Brett Scrivens
10 Izaak Duffy
Tries: Mulkeen (2,19), Cowburn (29), Bradley (39), Murphy (56), Crowther (73), Davies (75)
Goals: Bradley 5/7
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-4, 0-8, 0-14, 0-20, 4-20, 10-20, 10-24, 10-30, 10-36
Penalty count: 9-6
Half-time: 0-20
Referee: Jamie Bloem
Attendance: 243
