After last weekend’s tragedy the London Skolars will attempt to get their League 1 season back on track against Oxford RLFC this Sunday 3pm, at Iffey Road. It has been an emotional past few days for all in Rugby League. The sport has united as one following Danny Jones’ tragic passing with the Rugby League community donating over £81,000 so far via the RFL Benovelent Charity webpage. Like everyone in the RL community the London Skolars have been profoundly affected by the incident and our thoughts remain with Danny’s family and with the Keighley Cougars players, staff and fans for their fixture against Coventry Bears this weekend.
Oxford head into the game on the back of a couple of relatively impressive performances, last week they took on the much fancied for promotion Newcastle Thunder and ran them close, losing 38-20. Although this score line would belie how impressively Oxford had performed with them only being 2 points behind at the half time hooter. Their last home outing was against a playoff side from the previous season, Hemel Stags, they emerged victorious in what was a tight, hotly contested affair that ended 31-28. The recent upsurge in their form can be attributed somewhat to the addition of numerous players on dual registration from Bradford and London Bronco’s- two players who may be particularly familiar are Sean Morris and Matty Blythe- the latter has amassed a large number of Super league appearances with spells at sides such as Warrington.
London Skolars enter the game with no new injury concerns after last week and are still only without John Paxton (knee), Joe Price (shoulder) and Louis Robinson (ribs) and will be boosted by the return of energetic back row Will Fairhurst (pictured). Again Skolars can also expect to receive a number of London Bronco’s players as their squad begins to expand with new signings as well as welcoming others back from injury.
Coach Jermaine Coleman was extremely rational and uplifting in his comments
‘I think it will be a tough game on Sunday after last week, but during periods of adversity the best way to overcome and move forward is to get back on the horse. The previous weekend has given us extra time together as a group to work on several system changes I implemented when I first arrived. I am genuinely excited about how we are developing as a group, as it is evident we are beginning to find these changes habitual, which has improved the quality of our training and can only bode well for future games. Oxford will be looking to bounce back strongly from a solid performance at Newcastle and on the back of the win at Hemel will be full of confidence at home. They have some exciting players in backs and a fit strong set of forwards who lay a solid foundation. They have benefited significantly from their relationship with Bradford, as a result it’s hard to predict their team and prepare. But this week we will be purely focusing on ourselves and our progress from week to week being a positive one.’
