London Skolars U19s took a break from their league campaign this weekend as attentions turned towards the London Youth and Junior League Cup first round. Skolars welcomed back Gav Dilworth from injury but were missing regular front-rowers Franklin Bruno and David Ogufere. However given the Skolars strength in depth this season, coach Matt Cuss was able to name a powerful pack that included dual reg Broncos U19s Scott Whitby and Iliess Macani, and twins Micheal and Judd Greenhalgh who both have experienced first team action in the Northern Rail Cup this year already.
In glorious conditions at New River it was the Skolars who struck first early on with an outstanding individual effort from loose forward Iliess Macani. This was closely followed by another try out wide by winger Sayed Kapaka who was grateful to receive a wonderful ball from the base of the scrum, and finished well in the corner under pressure. These 2 tries put the Skolars in a commanding position and they did not relinquish this lead for the duration of the game. Some powerful surges up the middle from Conrad Edgar and Scott Whitby, gave half-backs Ben Cary, Jack Avery and Jack Clover a great platform on which to play, and they showed some exciting skills with the ball in hand to release wingers Sayed Kapaka and Deeshawn Eliot time and time again, both crossing for a brace each.
Even with the sin-binning of second row Micheal Greenhalgh for a high tackle the Skolars defence kept firm, which would have undoubtedly pleased Cuss given previous weeks defensive showings, even when Judd Greenhalgh followed his twin brother in the bin for an offence at the play the ball still the Skolars defence remained water-tight, with some great organisation and control by centres Seb Kolasa, Gav Dilworth and Shaun Palmer. The effort and commitment to keep Staines out was typified by the hit of the season so far by Skolars smallest player Max Catmur Hill who flung himself at the opposing winger and bundled him into touch to prevent Staines crossing before half-time.
As the game wore on, Skolars power in the forwards began to tell with Staines struggling to cope with the hard running lines of replacements Jake Harman, Robbie Jarvis and Luke Stack. More tries followed and the Skolars eased into the next round of the cup with a 48-4 win.
Cuss was pleased with the win commenting on Skolars superb defensive effort, “Staines aren’t a poor side and even though we have beaten them twice in the league, they have scored on average 30 points past us in both games, we have been working hard on our defense these past few weeks and it seemed that today we finally clicked as a unit, to limit a side like Staines to only 4 points was outstanding.”
The U19’s are next in action in the Semi-Finals of the Cup competition on May 4th with the draw still to be made.
