Skolars earned their first win of season, scoring five tries at South Wales Scorpions.
The home side had got off to a good start when Ian Newbury scored in the corner after Skolars had conceded a penalty. Paul Emanuelli’s conversion bounced over the cross-bar after hitting the posts. After giving away another penalty, Skolars had to drop-out from their own line, but their defence held out.
Skolars took advantage of errors from the Welsh for their first two tries. A dropped ball on the halfway line was picked up by James Anthony who raced to the tryline, with Tommy Connick converting. When the ball went lose five metres out, the home side paused in anticipation of the referees’ whistle, but he played advantage, Will Fairhurst was alert and slipped the ball to Connick who scored, but picked up an injury as he touched down and he went off, with Will Fairhurst converting.
The Scorpions levelled the scores when Jordan Sheridan burst through a split defence from fifteen metres out. Skolars regained a six point lead just before half-time when Will Fairhurst set up James Anthony’s second try.
The early part of the second half saw Skolars dominate. Wicks was held up over the line and good runs from Aaron Small and Anthony saw them again go close, before Craig Boot, making his debut after joining on loan from Newcastle Thunder, forced his way through the defence.
South Wales went over the tryline, but were adjudged to have knocked on at the start of the move. When an Anthony high kick was lost by the Welsh full-back as the chasers advanced, Harvey Burnett scooped up the ball and had a clear run to the tryline to seal the win on Skolars’ first visit to Mountain Ash.
SCORPIONS
1 Jordan Sheridan
2 Ian Newbury
3 Paul Edwards
4 Kyle Scrivens
28 Yannic Parker
26 Curtis Davies
7 Paul Emanuelli
8 Osian Phillips
9 Connor Farrer
10 Margan Evans
11 Mike Connor
18 Bradley Hill
13 Niel Dallimore
Subs (all used)
14 Dafydd Hallard
15 Rhys Davies
17 Zak Williams
23 Anthony Symons
Tries: Newbury (8), Sheridan (32)
Goals: Emanuelli 2/2
LONDON SKOLARS
1 Aaron Small
2 Jimmy Morgan
3 Mike Benson
4 Kazeem Fatouri-Edwards
5 Judd Greenhalgh
6 Tommy Connick
7 James Anthony
16 Dave Ellison
9 Joel Wicks
10 Dion Chapman
19 Craig Boot
12 Harvey Burnett
13 Will Fairhurst
Subs (all used)
14 Olly Bloom
15 Danny Burke
8 Michael Sykes
17 Anthony Cox
Tries: Anthony (20,36), Connick (27), Boot (54), Burnett (73)
Goals: Connick 1/1, Fairhurst 4/4
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 6-6 6-12, 6-12, 12-12, 12-18, 12-24, 12-30
Penalty count: 7-5
Half-time: 12-18
Referee: Sam Ansell
Attendance: 328
