All three Skolars teams were in action at the weekend, with the under 14’s and 16’s at home and the 18’s away, which is where we begin our round-up.
Skolars U18’s played a double header of Round 6 in the London Junior League and Preliminary 1st Round for the London RL Challenge Cup away to St. Albans Centurions U18’s.
Skolars started slowly, falling behind to two converted tries in the first ten minutes. Skolars finally broke their deadlock with tries coming from Iliess Macani, David Ogufere and a great close range effort from Michael Linskey, dummying and side-stepping the full back to score under the posts. This meant Skolars went in at half time leading by 16-12.
Skolars came out of the blocks strongly in the second half with a thoroughly professional performance rewarded with unanswered tries from, Ani Mustafa with two tries, and a hatrick and Man of the Match performance from Iliess Macani. Manacni’s second try was a great solo effort, picking the ball up on his own in-goal line and going full length, fending the winger off and then going around the full back.
Final score: 36-12 to Skolars
London Skolars Under 16’s
After last weekend’s under par performance by the under 16s the Skolars were looking to put in a good 60 mins against the Medway Dragons. With home advantage and the return of influential half back Guy Reed Skolars were keen to put in a good account of themselves. The opening exchanges were close with both teams completing sets early and defending well. Shimir Thomas did his usual role at full back and bossed the team in defence very well. Reed and big name Essex recruit Jack Clover looked strong in the half back positions and are strengthening their playing relationship. Skolars took too long to get into any decent field position and were left licking their wounds at half time. after Medway scored five tries in the opening 30 mins to Skolars one, which was scored by man of the match Theo Danko and converted by Guy Reed.
The second half was a much closer affair with Medway’s larger and more physically dominant pack tiring and the smaller, more agile Skolars taking full advantage. After achieving a repeat set, Essex boy Jack Avery crashed over and converted his own try. The final score was 44-12 in favour of the Medway Dragons, but with good performances in the pack from Uzair Abbas, Shaun Palmer and D’Shaun Elliotte the Skolars are looking for a victory this coming Saturday against the Croydon Hurricanes at home.
Skolars Under 14’s suffered a 0-64 defeat to a physically stronger Brixton team on Saturday.
