LONDON SKOLARS 14
LONDON BRONCOS 36
Skolars fell to defeat in the derby game against Broncos on their return to New River after redvelopment. The friendly was their first game on the new artificial pitch ahead of the new season which starts in March.
Broncos took an early lead when Brad Dwyer and Ben Helliwell combined to put Iliess Macani over. After Sam Druve had gone close at the other end a speculative pass was intercepted by Hellliwell who ran deep into the Skolars’ half, but it was the home side that scored next when Saaaed Agboke intercepted and raced to the other end of the field.
A high kick from Oscar Thomas was well taken by James Anthony, but he was bundled into to the in goal area. The resulting goal line drop out saw Alex Walker go over for Broncos’ second try.
Broncos added two further tries in quick succession. Jon Wallace pushed his way to the line under the posts, with James Antony spraining his ankle badly in the attempt to stop the prop. Skolars also picked up further injuries with Will Fairhurst and Dave Williams both taking knocks to the head and Michael Greenhalgh injuring his knee. Broncos fourth try came when Joel Wicks slipped the ball out for Alex Walker to score his second of the say.
Broncos nearly scored again just before half-time but Thomas’ pass to Sean Morris was just forward. They added a further try soon after the restart when Macani took a quick tap restart on the twenty. He was chased down five metres from the line, but Thomas was on hand to finish off, also slotting over his fourth conversion.
Brad Dwyer and Oscar Thomas both created problems for the home side’s defence, whilst Vince Spurr put in some challenging high kicks for Skolars, but the game became a little scrappy in the second half. Whilst the pitch may have played like it was summer, hands were still winter cold and both sides didn’t control attacking moves as well they might have liked.
Skolars continued to work hard and Aaron Small did well as acting full-back to win a kick chase with Macani and avoid being dragged over the tryline.
Walker recorded his hat-trick when Skolars failed to defend a grubber kick before Tuoyo Egodo burst through the defence 20 metres out to record his side’s seventh try.
Skolars enjoyed some good possession in the last ten minutes. Sam Wellings just managing to force his way through the defence. Michael Sykes was less easy to stop just before the hooter, but Joe Mbu will be glad it’s five weeks before the season starts so that the injuries can recover.
LONDON SKOLARS
1 James Anthony
2 James Carty
3 Kazeem Fatouri-Edwards
4 Aaron Small
5 Saeed Agboke
6 Will Fairhurst
7 Vince Spurr
8 Louis Robinson
9 Sam Druce
10 David Williams
11 Louie Sutherland
12 Anthony Cox
13 Dion Chapman
Subs (all used)
14 James Mason
15 Michael Sykes
16 Dave Ellison
17 Seb Kolasa
18 Michael Greenhalgh
19 Callum Adetona
20 Mike Benson
21 Matt Lyle
22 Sam Wellings
Tries: Agnoke (19), Wellings (73), Sykes (80)
Goals: Druce 1/3
BRONCOS
1 Iliess Macani
2 Sean Morris
3 Tuoyo Egodo
4 Ben Hellewell
5 Alex Walker
6 Oscar Thomas
7 Joe Glover
8 Jonathan Wallace
9 Brad Dwyer
10 Toby Everett
11 Oli Toms
12 Harvey Burnett
13 Joel Wicks
Subs (all used)
14 Matt Davis
15 Ben Gray
16 Callum Bustin
17 Sadiq Adebiyi
18 Erjon Dollapi
19 Ben Pointer
20 Matt Davies
Tries: Macani (11), Walker (24,28,63), Wallace (26),Thomas (43), Egodo (67)
Goals: Thomas 4/5, Glover 0/2
Penalty count: 9-3
Half-time: 8-36
Referee: Jamie Bloem
Attendance: 568
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 4-6, 4-10, 4-16, 4-22, 4-28, 4-32, 4-36, 8-36, 14-36
