Skolars’ reserves won through to the Final of the Harry Jepson Trophy with a 46-22 victory over Gloucestershire Warriors.
It’s the first time the club has qualified for the final for the trophy though of course they won the Southern Conference the year before the Harry Jepson trophy was initiated.
Instrumental to the win were the performances of Olly Bloom and Danny Burke against their old club. Even though the first team was not in action, other than evergreen Chris Appleton (46) it was a young side that took the field at Oxford, with just ten first team appearances in 2012 between them.
Bloom opened the scoring after 3 minutes, burrowing over from dumy half. Jack Clover finished off a James Fletcher break two minutes later and when Bloom went over for his second, Skolars had a comfortable lead.
Gloucestershire reduced the deficit with a try from Chris Hall. But Skolars then scored two more tries in quick succession, Ibrahim Kabia scoring in the corner after Clover had been held up over the line. A break from James Fletcher then stretched the defence for Burke to go over for a try.
The Warriors scored just before half-time to leave the scoreline at 28-12. But tries for Dion Chapman and a second from Burke put Skolars ‘A’ comfortably in the lead. Jack Clover also added a second with Aiden Oakley converting 7 goals.
In the other semi-final Northampton Demons defeated Edinbugh Eagles 34-12 to set up the final at Hemel next Sunday.
1 Angelo Thomas
2 Ibrahim Kabia
3 Mike Cawthorn
4 Jaroslaw Obuchowski
5 David Hacke
6 Aiden Oakley
7 Jack Clover
8 Sam Blayden
9 Danny Burke
10 Dion Chapman
11 Craig Lawton
12 James Fletcher
13 Olly Bloom
14 Chris Appleton
15 Rob Jarvis
16 Luke Stack
London Skolars A
Tries: Ollie Bloom (3,9), Jack Clover (5,68), Ibrahaim Kabia (30), Danny Burke (33,52), Dion Chapman (50)
Conversions Aiden Oakley 7/8
Gloucestershire Warriors
Tries: Chris Hall (23), Kieran Bowes (36), Ash Lewis (57), Jerome Moore (74)
Conversions Ash Lewis 3/4
