Whilst the thunder above held off until after the game on a wet and windy summer’s day, there was no such respite from the Thunder on the field for Skolars as they fell to their heaviest league defeat of the season, conceding 13 tries.
The game started with Skolars just missing out on a try. After making a break, Mike McMeeken backed himself rather than passing outside to Kazeem Fatouri-Edwards. He was bundled up quickly, but Tely Pelo raced to the line on the next tackle only to be held up over the tryline. The rest of the half saw the visitors dominate.
Former England international Jamie Rooney kicked a 40-20 to get Thunder to the other end of the field, where Sonny Esslemont opened a gap on the right to score. After forcing a goal line drop out they went further ahead when the industrious Paul Stamp slipped through the defence.
They started to move out of sight with three tries in four minutes. First Joel Farrell took a high kick on the right wing to score, soon followed by another score Jamie Rooney finished off a Jordan Meads break from halfway. They cut through on the left again two minutes later with Jason Payne touching down.
Thunder looked to have scored again soon afterwards when Jamie Rooney intercepted 40 metres out, but a Thunder player was adjudged to have been offside at the play-the-ball and the try was wiped off. Rooney almost kicked another 40-20 but Dennis Tuffour just managed to stop it and himself from going into touch. From a scrum Thunder scored a sixth try a few minutes later and there was still time for another when Michael Butterfield ran through Mike Bishay to score in the corner.
Rooney went off at half-time having taken a knock. That and the strong wind gave Skolars some hope of improvement and Danny Yates, in his first game on loan from Halifax, took advantage early on with a 40-20. Sam Druce sliced through the defence for what turned out to be Skolars’ only try.
Sheriff cut through the right hand defence with ease to score, then Jordan Meads broke through at pace for George Clark (newly on loan from Hunslet) to touchdown under the posts.
Skolars did show some signs of inventiveness when Yates kicked short for Druce to gather and offload to Anthony Cox, but the second rower was stopped just short of the line. Dave Williams was adjudged to have been held-up a few minutes later, but apart from that it was Gateshead all the way.
Jason Payne broke the defence with ease for Sheriff’s second try, his hat-trick came soon afterwards, with a Ricky Hough try in between. Skolars day was summed with an error in defence giving Jordan Meads an easy opportunity to add to the rout.
LONDON SKOLARS
1 John Paxton
33 Courtney Davies
4 Mufaro Mvududu
3 Kazeem Fatouri-Edwards
32 Dennis Tuffour
6 Danny Yates
7 Mike Bishay
20 Tely Pelo
9 Martyn Smith
10 David Williams
11 Anthony Cox
12 Mike McMeeken
13 Olly Purslow
Subs (all used)
8 Ryan McDonald
16 Sam Druce
31 Lamont Bryan
22 Michael Sykes
Tries: Druce (42)
Goals: Davies 1/1
THUNDER
1 Louis Sheriff
30 Michael Butterfield
24 Chris Heil
4 Joe Brown
5 Tom Capper
15 Jordan Meads
7 Jamie Rooney
29 Ricky Hough
6 Paul Stamp
14 Matt Barron
22 Joel Farrell
12 Jason Payne
28 Sonny Esslemont
Subs (all used)
11 Rhys Clarke
26 George Clark
19 Josh Stoker
10 Lee Fewlass
Tries: Esslemont (3), Stamp (10), Farrell (17), Rooney (19,31), Payne (21), Butterfield (39), Sheriff (48,52,75), Clark (56), Hough (72), Meads (80)
Goals: Rooney 4/7, Meads 2/4, Stamp 1/2
Penalty count: 6-11
Half-time: 6-36
Referee: Tom Grant
Attendance: 206
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 0-10, 0-14, 0-20, 0-26, 0-32, 0-36, 6-36, 6-40, 6-46, 6-52, 6-56, 6-62, 6-66
