| London Skolars 16 Limoux Grizzlies 42 |
| Monday, 08 March 2010 22:14 | |
 Carnegie Challenge Cup Third Round 7 March 2010 Skolars worked hard against a strong Limoux side, but couldn’t compete in the second half against a side that played with typically Gallic flair. Read more. . . . Limoux reached the semi-final of the French Cup last weekend and started in decisive fashion with their two prop forwards combining in attack, with the powerful Aaron Wood to open the scoring. Jermaine Coleman put in a fine tackle to stop wingman Stephane Selles, but conceded a penalty soon afterwards and Mathieu Mayans used his strength to crash through the defence. Skolars bounced straight back into the game after they forced an error from the kick off, then earned the ninth penalty of a game barely into its 20th minute. At that stage Skolars had already taken two tap penalties without being able to turn them into points. This time, however, they were successful and Gareth Honor slipped under the defence from dummy half to score.Skolars started to get into the game more with Curtis Cunningham making some incisive running from full-back. The penalty count started to mount in the game and the game looked to be reaching boiling point when substitute Thibault Bracconier was sin-binned for a punch10 seconds after coming into the field. Skolars took advantage of the extra man and put pressure on the Limoux line, forcing a drop-out. The ball return saw the ball moved first to the left when Ade Adebisi’s quick thinking pushed the ball out before he was bundled into touch, then across to the right for Cunningham to score. Paul Thorman’s conversion put Skolars into the lead. They had an excellent chance to further that lead soon afterwards, a Coleman break was continued by Matt Carter, but the second rower’s long pass to Ade Adebisi was just forward. Limoux punished that error straight away with Philip Ramage’s dummy creating a gap for him to put Sam Key through. Ramage’s conversion gave the Grizzlies a four point lead at the break and they extended that lead after half-time when Shead finished off a good passing move which saw the ball move right along the line. With Jermaine Coleman lying injured on the ground, Limoux extended their lead when Mayans scored his second try, following up on a deep kick, he kicked on again, beating the defence to the ball. Key then added his second try soon afterwards scored his second soon afterwards, followed by Casal Joris who raced to Ramage’s kick after a Mayans’ break. Skolars were also keen to move the ball out to the flanks, with Matt Thomas scoring after a Matt Carter break, but Limoux had the final say with a break from Wood and a deft flick pass to Ramage who finished off and also converted his fifth goal of the game. Winning coach Jean Luc Delarose reflected on the high number of penalties in the game. “It was a very difficult game. Skolars came at us very hard and completed lots of sets. We had a game plan put in place, which we had to keep to. The discipline is a problem and the game is interpreted in a different way in France.” James Massara looked rueful having seen his side lose a physical game with the re-arranged match against York just three days away. ”We’ve worked hard and a lot of stuff is starting to come right. I’m disappointed as the mistakes we made are ones we understand. We have to keep believing as we know we can compete. Limoux are used to winning and played some good football; we allowed them too much of the ball”. LONDON SKOLARS 22 Curtis Cunningham 23 Olu Iwenofu 4 Jason Cook 2 Dave Arnott 31 Ade Adebisi 6 Jermaine Coleman 7 Paul Thorman 8 Liam Roach 9 Gareth Honor 18 James Simon 3 Matt Thomas 13 Stephen Ball 11 Olly Purslow
Subs (all used) 37 Rob Montgomery 1 Josh Welsh 17 Chad Isles 12 Matt Carter
Tries: Honor (20), Cunningham (32), Thomas (66) Goals: Thorman 2/3
LIMOUX GRIZZLIES 1 Adam Innes 2 Bastien Almarcha 3 Mathieu Mayans 4 Sam Key 5 Stephane Selles 6 Philp Ramage 7 Michael Murcia 8 Arty Shead 9 Sylvain Texido 10 Aaron Wood 11 Casal Joris 12 Matieu Almarcha 13 Nicolas Piccolo
Subs (all used) 14 Thibaud Bracconier 15 Gregory Delarose 16 Jerome Laffont 17 Herve Marrot
Tries: Wood (8), Mayons (15,54), Key (36,57), Shead (47), Joris (62), Ramage (75) Goals: Ramage 5/8 Sin-bin: Braconnier (34) - punching
Penalty count: 16-7
Half-time: 12-16 Referee: Peter Brooke Attendance: 376
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 0-10, 6-10, 12-10, 12-16, 12-20, 12-26, 12-30, 12-36, 16-36, 16-42 |
