Skolar’s player and Community coach Neil Thorman continues his series of blogs on the team’s preperations for the coming season:
Happy New Year from London Skolars. We’ve all returned from our Christmas break and now we’re into 2012. This has brought us the return of Dylan Skee and Jermaine Coleman, along with 6 new players, 2 being from Australia, 1 Frenchman, and the rest from our shores.
We have definitely upped the tempo in sessions, starting with Wednesday being our usual indoor session including gym, contact and finishing with stability and pilates. Friday we had an extra incentive with us finishing with a team feed at every rugby league players favourite restaurant, Nandos (P.S. if Nandos are reading this, just send my black card courtesy of Neil Thorman). As we had the treat of Nandos to look forward to we certainly had to ‘sing for our supper’, starting with gym, then wrestle & contact and finishing with stadium stairs. I think Matty Thomas ordered salad with a water, but Dylan Skee showed the forwards how to do it with his very own chicken challenge, platter for one.
With numbers going up in training, competition in positions is hotting up, with our 3 pre-season friendlies being announced this week. First being London Broncos U20’s this Sunday 15th January, 1pm KO at New River Stadium. Joe (Mbu) is taking this as an opportunity to look at 9 new trialists we have. Our youngest player on the pitch will be Jack Clover, who has earned his chance to play, starting on the wing, just outside Centre James Anthony, who will be teaming up against his younger brother Alex Anthony for the Broncos U20s, also playing Centre. Should be a very interesting competition, with no love lost!
Other pre-season friendlies coming up include a weekend away over Saturday 21th and Sunday 22nd January at an Army base in Colchester which will involve a game against Colchester Army Select. Our final friendly is the much anticipated game against newly branded London Broncos at the Honourable Artilley Company’s grounds in the City, which is just the type of competitive game you want before we start our Northern Rail Cup fixtures in February.
And finally, what you’ve all been waiting for… my pre season thought.
A wise man once told me. “every time you’re not training, you’re opponent is”. Aran Quinn was that wise man.
