With the excitement building as we edge ever closer to the Shield grand final next weekend now is the opportune time to pledge your support for season 2018 by becoming a Member of the London Skolars. Both our Gold & Silver Memberships will allow you to gain access to all League 1 home games in 2018 as well receive a monthly newsletter, letting you stay up to date with all the inside news from New River Stadium, as well as getting a digital copy of the home game match day program in the week following home games.
For those amongst you who enjoy all the trimmings of a day out at the footy, a Gold Membership also gives you the opportunity to join other fans for pre-match hospitality consisting of a food & beverage package at each home game to line your stomach before getting into the New River Grand Stand to cheer your Skolars on; Gold Membership is a must for the avid Skolars supporter.
Rounding out our Membership package for 2018 is the 1995 Club for those fans who know they can’t make every home game but want to keep in touch with the Club as well as show their support. This  really affordable option will get you the monthly newsletter and a copy of the digital program.
In 2018 there’s a Membership package to suit everyone, starting at £5 for under 12s & £75 for adults. 

“The new packages offer something for everyone. We attract a diverse crowd to our match days and we want that reflected in the memberships that we offer, we’re hopeful that our 1995 Club membership will allow those fans living  further away to feel as though they’re part of the club.”

Jac Davies, General Manager.

To find out more information about our new packages, click the link below.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2018-membership-packages-tickets-37760594956

Kingstone Press League 1 Shield

London Skolars 16 University of Gloucestershire All-Golds 6

Extending their winning run to eight games, Skolars made certain of a place in the Shield final in a fortnight. They will play Hunslet in that game, with the home advantage effectively to be decided by the result when the two sides meet next weekend in South Leeds in the last round of league games.

It wasn’t an afternoon for free-flowing rugby, with torrential rain, plus thunder and lightning all starting towards the end of the first half. Skolars were able to control the game sufficiently to deny All-Golds of much possession in attacking positions. “The emphasis was on defence today” commented head coach Jermaine Coleman after the game. “I thought our line speed and contact were excellent against a solid team that was strong in the centre.”

Both sides had good field position in the opening stages thanks to penalties, but neither side was able to use it to their advantage. Jacob Ogden came close twice, first just unable to get to a Mike Bishay kick to the corner before it drifted into touch, the second saw him lose control of a high Jy-Mel Coleman under pressure from the All-Golds.

All-Golds made some good runs down the flanks, but couldn’t penetrate the defence near the tryline. When Skolars had a restart from the 20 metre line, Coleman opted to kick deep. Chris Barlow couldn’t prevent the ball from finding touch just inside his 20 metre area. The next attack saw Ben Pointer held up for the third time in the game, but it wasn’t long before they did get on the scoreboard, Bishay moving into the line to slip through the All-Golds defence unopposed to score under the posts.

All-Golds had a chance late on when Ben Stead kicked deep to the corner but Mo Agoro couldn’t keep control. Another kick through from Skolars at the other end, this time from Charlie Lawrence almost saw Coleman score. All-Golds conceded a goal-line drop-out and had to defend again before the hooter sounded.

Skolars scored early in the second half in a lull between rainstorms, taking advantage after Steve Parry had been penalised for backchat. They moved the ball right and, with everyone expecting Eddie Mbaraga to make his usual forceful run to the line, he drew the defence before offloading to Smokie Junor, Coleman adding the conversion.

With conditions worsening, Coleman regularly kicked downfield forcing All-Golds to have to take the ball from close to their own tryline. He extended the lead with two with penalties goals. After the second, All-Golds found touch from the kick-off and then enjoyed a period of sustained attack, with Brad Kisslingbury finally breaking the defence for a late try.

The end of the game saw both sides form a guard of honour for Dave Williams in his last scheduled home game before retirement.

LONDON SKOLARS

  7 Mike Bishay

27 Smokie Junor

24 Michael Brown

  4 Lameck Juma

28 Jacob Ogden

  6 Jy-Mel Coleman

  9 Charlie Lawrence

25 Michael Sykes

29 Rob Butler

26 Ben Pointer

11 Lamont Bryan

10 David Williams

12 Eddie Mbaraga

13 Ryan Chester

Subs (all used)

14 Phil Lyon

  8 Louis Robinson

18 Michael Greenhalgh

15 Kazeem Faturoti-Edwards

Tries: Bishay (22), Junor (43)

Goals: Coleman 4/4

All-GOLDS

  1 Alex Gaskell

  2 Mo Agoro

  3 Phil Cowburn

  4 Brad KisslingburyÂ

  5 Chris Barlow

  6 Jack Mitchell

  7 Ben Stead

  8 Malaki Lloyd-Jones

  9 Luke Stephens

10 Harrison Elliott

11 Kadeem Williams

12 Billy Brickhill

13 Danny Fallon

Subs (all used)

14 Steve Parry

15 James Mason

16 Joe Mclean

17 Harry Kidd

Tries: Kisslingbury (70)

Goals: Stead 1/1
Penalty count: 8-7

Half-time: 6-0

Referee: Brandon Robinson

Attendance: 218

SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 12-0, 14-0, 16-0, 16-6

Skolars recorded their 8th straight win at the New River Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

In what was club captain David Williams’ last regular home game before he retires at the end of the season, the Skolars sealed their place in the League 1 Shield Final.

Full match report to follow.

This weekend saw London Skolars U19s bring their season to a close with the visit of Scotland U19s who were into the second week of their U19s representative programme for 2017.

Watched by a good crowd including members of the London Skolars 1^st team, it was an exciting game. London Skolars showing no signs of being over-awed by the class that was evident in the Scotland ranks, which included players of the calibre of Will Kerr, who spent time in the U20’s NRL competition with the Canterbury Bulldogs and the London Broncos U19’s pairing of Caley Gray and Alfie Edwards.

Skolars certainly started the brighter of the two sides, matching the well organised and tough Scottish forwards in the early exchanges. The young London Skolars pack which included Barnet & Southgate Academy players Will Prior & Adam Green along with U19’s stalwarts Christian Gale and Rodell Reid were well marshalled around the field by half-backs Tom Hamer and Alfie Lawrence, who had dropped down to his age group following his impressive League One debut at Friday Night Lights. Hooker Mitchell Youngs was a constant threat and his calm and solid performance in the middle epitomised the Skolars in the first period.

It was Young’s replacement, Tom Scott who struck first for the Skolars however as he powered his way over for a close range try which was converted by Lawrence. Scott added a different dimension at hooker, exploiting any poor defensive efforts by the Scottish and laying a fantastic platform for replacement prop’s Aaron Osademe and Fraser Piercy Farley to continue to travel hard into the Scottish defence.

As the end of the first half approached, the Scottish held a slender lead and would have been well aware that they were in a game.

After half-time Head Coach Sean Scott made a number of changes as he looked to give everyone the opportunity to face the Scots, this seemed to disjoint the Skolars as their defensive efforts became sloppy around the ruck and the ruthless Scots exposed this running in some fine tries. However, the Skolars did hit back and built up some incredible pressure, but could not breach a Scottish defence that had been well prepared, the Skolars threw everything at them, but were limited in their attack and could not force their way over the goal-line to claw themselves back into the game.

The fantastic defence gave the Scots a morale boost and they went up another gear as the game neared its conclusion and as Skolars began to slip off some tackles in the middle, the Scottish exploited the quick play the balls and ran in some fantastic tries, the pick of which being an effort by the wonderful Will Kerr who took on a broken field and showed off some fantastic footwork to race away under the posts to the delight of his team-mates and coaches.

The Skolars kept going until the final whistle however and were rewarded late on in the game, as Alfie Lawrence capped off a fine individual performance as he dived over for a consolation try to bring the final score to London Skolars 12 – Scotland 32.

Credit must go to both sides for producing such an entertaining game, defensively both sides gave their all, with the more inventive Scottish attack ultimately being the difference. Head Coach Sean Scott was proud of his players and commented

I don’t feel like the end score-line really reflected how close the match was at times and we most certainly made the Scottish work hard for their tries. I was really proud of the players and exposing them to high levels of Rugby League like they experienced today is a fantastic development opportunity for them, I’d like to thank the Scottish players and coaches for their involvement and everyone at London Skolars for putting on such a fantastic event today.