This weekend no less than four Skolars teams were at home in league fixtures and it turned out to be a good showing by all of the club’s Junior teams.
The under 12’s won convincingly by 46-8 against St Albans whilst the 14’s hosted Southampton and won by 54-8.
The 16’s came very close to causing an upset against second placed St Albans Centurions. The first half started well for the Skolar,s with in form center Tuoyo Egodo crossing from a brilliant opening set of 6. The Centurions hit back straight away, and converted. Skolars then scored back to back tries though Egodo and flying winger Imam Ortac, with George Bradley converting both tries. In the 20 mins leading up to half time the Skolars lost concentration and let in 6 unanswered tries. After a rousing half time speech from coach Graeme Spencer the 16’s were a different team in the second half. Luca Vettori put in a man of the match performance at scrum half and looked to be building a great half back pairing with George Bradley. The Forward back looked solid throughout with the likes of Anthony Barry, Olly Watts, Daniel Musabi, and Shae Osnakie all playing brilliantly. Tuoyo Egodo added three more tries in the second half and George Bradley converted two of them to make the final score 46-32 in favour of St Albans Centurions.
With the London Skolars 18’s having no game last week the team were keen to get back on the field and back up their previous displays with another emphatic win over Staines Titans 18’s. Staines were only able to field 12 so Skolars went down to 12 players also to make the game more even. With this Titans 18’s were always going to struggle with Skolars 18’s strong pack and being able to interchange eight subs at any one time. London Skolars got off to a good start with Iliess Macani breaking clear and scoring under the posts, with a successful kick coming from Gavin Dilworth. Skolars didn’t have many backs on display and with a few players playing out of position. It was always going to be a forwards battle down the middle, which Skolars started to win by the end of the first half. With six different people scoring only one of those was a back. Captain Louie Sutherland starting at prop went over twice. Even when he had to move to half back he showed he was just a forward in a scrum halves position. Ben Cary scored his first try of the season and also suffered his first dislocated finger so was unable to carry on and had to be taken to hospital. Twanda Mjuru also crashed over for a great solo effort, only to be bettered by replacement prop Keith Riley fending off four players before finally finding the try line and scoring. This time Iliess Macani took over the duties of kicking. Staines Titans did score three tries, two of which were worked or scored by their centre, who kept working all game.
The final score was 62-16 to Skolars. A lot of people had some standout performances. The likes of Franklin Bruno looking very strong going forward in attack, Ben Howard offering a great replacement for our props. An impressive defensive display by Kamil Bydon and Aita Kuniyoshi. Even David Ogufere scoring three impressive tries, two from his own half came close to Man of the Match, but this week it goes to Iliess Macani setting up and bagging himself four tries. The next London Skolars 18’s game is away to Greenwich Admirals 18’s in the Youth League Cup.
