Skolars unbeaten record came to a crashing halt as they fell to a determined Hemel Stags side on Good Friday.
Proceeding started in the customary manner at New River this season, with Smokie Junor missing out on an early try for the third time; on this occasion James Anthony’s pass to him was just forward.
Skolars’ lost Oscar Thomas soon afterwards with a broken foot. The Stags used the wind well with good chase from Chad Sharp’s kick forcing a goal line drop out. After Aiden Pritchard was held up over the line, Joel Miranda darted over to open the scoring with Mike Bishay converting. Rob Thomas was held up at the over the end of the field, but Hemel were quick to counterattack with Mike Forgham slipping past four tacklers to bring his side into an attacking position. An Aaron Small drive to the line was followed by Harry Mostyn taking the ball from dummy half and diving to the corner, catching the Skolars’ defence napping.
Mike Worrincy was the third player to be held up, but when David Stephenson raced through the defence just before the break for Olly Purslow to score, it looked like Skolars were back in the game and would have expected to dominate the second half. They didn’t, despite a domination in penalty and scrum count that meant they had the majority of possession.
Pritchard went close before a penalty was awarded. Hemel chose to kick it, Bishay scoring a further two points and then received a massive bonus when Dylan Skee’s restart went out on the full. They kicked deep and the next set saw Bishay swerving past the defence on the right hand side to score.
The dual registration youngster was instrumental in the next Hemel move setting up a try for Mason Caton-Brown and kicking his third goal of the day. The travelling support went wild, sensing that a surprise defeat of their local rivals was now on the cards.
Skolars rallied a little with Jack Dillon forcing his way through on the left flank. Skee missed the conversion, but with 12 minutes left there was still a chance for the home side.
Those hopes vanished four minutes later when former Skolar Aaron Small stole the ball from James Anthony, releasing Harry Mostyn to score his second try of the day and seal a memorable day for the Hertfordshire side.
Skolars’ coach Joe Mbu felt that “we were out enthused and they had energy that we didn’t have an answer for. We didn’t execute our game plan well. The conditions shouldn’t be an issue, we were trying to force plays and didn’t go back to basics when they didn’t work.”
For a series of runs from deep, Joe Price won the Man of the Match award sponsored by The Mall, Wood Green.
LONDON SKOLARS
1 James Anthony
4 John Paxton
18 Chris McNamara
3 Joe Price
2 Smokie Junor
26 Oscar Thomas
7 Dylan Skee
16 Louis Robinson
9 Martyn Smith
10 David Williams
11 David Stephenson
12 Mike Worrincy
23 Jack Dillon
Subs (all used)
8 Rob Thomas
13 Olly Purslow
19 James Roche
17 Danny Burke
Tries: Stephenson (40), Dillon (68)
Goals: Skee 0/2
HEMEL
1 Mike Forgham
31 Tobias Rochester-Bremmer
29 Mason Caton-Brown
3 Aaron Small
5 Harry Mostyn
36 Chad Sharp
35 Mike Bishay
8 James Howitt
9 Joel Miranda
12 Aiden Pritchard
24 Jake Hobbs
29 Alex Ingerfield
13 Jack Molloy
Subs (all used)
10 Ian Keevil
15 Dan Ljazouili
18 Mike McLeod
20 Ben Kavanagh
Tries: Miranda (28), Mostyn (34), Bishay (52), Caton Brown (55), Mostyn (72)
Goals: Bishay 3/5
Penalty count: 11-7
Half-time: 4-6
Referee: Clint Sharrad
Attendance: 419
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 0-10, 4-10, 4-12, 4-18, 4-22, 8-22, 8-26
