Skolars gained a bonus point with a try in the last minute of the match against top of the table York City Knights. However, three tries in six minutes either side of half-time meant that the visitors were 30 nil up at one stage before Skolars launched a comeback. The game was originally scheduled to be played at York, but home and away dates were swapped before the start of the season, so that the game didn’t clash with the departure of the Tour De France from York earlier in the day.
Both sides squandered possession within ten metres of their opponents’ tryline in the first few minutes, Skolars’ chance coming after a 40-20 kick by Danny Yates. He nearly kicked a second but Jamie Haynes did well to get to the ball and stop it finding touch.
The Knights broke the deadlock halfway through the opening period. Ben Dent raced 40 metres after taking a high ball near his own tryline. With the Skolars’ defence on the backfoot, Greg Milikin broke through offloading to Joe Picketts for Jack Lee to touchdown.
Skolars enjoyed a good spell after forcing a goal line drop out, Martyn Smith and Judd Greenhalgh were held short of the line, whilst Anthony Cox’s pass to Courtney Davies was ruled forward. York counterattacked and the influential Pat Smith regathered his own grubber kick for York’s second try.
The home side went further behind after Martyn Smith fumbled the ball as it came out of the scrum. York moved the ball quickly to the left from their scrum and Jamie Haynes came into the line to create a try for Ben Dent, in his first game on dual registration with Castleford.
York were out of the dressing rooms early and made a quick impact. Kriss Brining and Haynes combined to send Colton Roche over and they scored again from the next attack through Ben Day. Ben Reynolds kicked his fifth conversion of the afternoon.
Skolars finally got on the scoreboard when James Duckworth pounced on a York error, but they must still have been fearing another hammering when Mike Bishay’s pass to the right saw James Ford intercept 40 metres out. However, he’d been offside at the play-the-ball, the try was ruled out and Skolars made the most of the opportunity, getting the ball out wide to Judd Greenhalgh for his seventh try of the season.
Brad Brennan was held up for York, but Skolars had the best of the latter stages with Anthony Cox and Louis Robinson making the yards that they’ve been lacking recently. A bonus point for the home side looked unlikely until two minutes to go when Mufaro Mvududu scored down the left with Courtney Davies converting. From the restart Mvududu returned and broke through the on-coming line before offloading to Yates to score to give the Skolars’ supporters something to cheer after several heavy home defeats.
LONDON SKOLARS
1 John Paxton
3 Courtney Davies
21 Judd Greenhalgh
4 Mufaro Mvududu
34 James Duckworth
6 Danny Yates
7 Mike Bishay
22 Michael Sykes
16 Sam Druce
20 Tely Pelo
11 Anthony Cox
31 Lamont Bryan
10 David Williams
Subs (all used)
8 Ryan McDonald
13 Louis Robinson
9 Martyn Smith
12 Dion Chapman
Tries: Duckworth (50), Greenhalgh (56), Mvududu (78), Yates (80)
Goals: Davies 2/4
Att: 465
