Full Time Score: London Skolars 20 London Broncos 28
Full Match Report
Skolars lead for most of the second half but couldn’t prevent a late comeback from a young Broncos side that comprised of mainly under 19s and scholarship players with just Elliott Kear, Toby Everett and Jon Magrin from their first team squad.
Skolars’ Head Coach Jermaine Coleman named himself on the bench, but didn’t come on, preferring to see how the rest of the squad performed. “It was disappointing not to back up last week’s performance. With the ball in hand we scored some nice tries and we were more clinical than against Wigan. But our line speed in defence and wrestle at the tackle were poor. However, it’s pre-season and we still have time to sort things out”.
Skolars enjoyed some early possession but couldn’t make it count, twice faliing to find touch from kicks in the first ten minutes. That allowed the visitors to attack, with Gideon Boafo touching down in the right hand corner to open the scoring; Dan Wheldon adding the conversion.
Broncos went further ahead when Skolars allowed a James Meadow’s kick to run dead, but it held up in goal and Boafo raced to the ball to ground it just before it went dead.
Skolars fought back when Jimmy Morgan went over on the right wing, fed by a slip out pass from Will Lovell.
The winger scored again minutes later when quick passing by Joe Price and Aaron Small exposed a gap out wide. Charlie Lawrence kicked the conversion to level the scores.
They had another chance when Small raced onto a deep kick, but the ball just eluded him as he beat the defence to the tryline. However, they went into the lead shortly before half-time when Sam Druce took the ball from dummy half and forced his way though the defence.
Neither side could break through for much of the second half. Jordan Williams had a chance to score for Broncos but good defensive work from Dave Williams saw the ball dislodged close to the line. When Lameck Juma went over on the left wing, Skolars were ten points ahead with fifteen minutes remaining and looked the stronger side at that stage.
However, a weaving run from Elliott Kear put Broncos in a good attacking position, Dan Weldon supplying the pass for Angelo Butler to score. When Skolars lost the ball on the half way line, Broncos were quick to pounce and Boafo showed great speed to get past the defenders and then race to the tryline for his hat-trick. Wellden converted to put them into the lead and they made certain of the win when Jordan Williams scored in the final minute.
SKOLARS
1 Alex Anthony
2 John Paxton
3 Aaron Small
4 Joe Price
5 Jimmy Morgan
6 Chris Bishay
7 Charlie Lawrence
8 Erjon Dollapi
9 Ben Pointer
10 Ben Gray
11 Kazeen Faturoti
12 Will Lovell
13 Eddie Mbaraga
Subs
14 David Williams
15 Cariern Clement-Pascall
16 Sam Druce
17 Michael Sykes
18 Andy Winfield
19 Lameck Juma
20 Jermaine Coleman (not used)
21 Michael Greenhalgh
22 Will Martin
Tries: Morgan (21,25), Druce (37), Juma (65)
Goals: Pointer 2/4
BRONCOS
1 Fred Dodd 2 Gideon Boafo 3 Elliot Kear 4 Kam Pearce-Paul 5 Callum Whitcombe
6 James Meadows 7 Dan Wellden 8 Toby Everett 9 Matt Davies 10 Johnny Magrin 11 Dan Hindmarsh 12 Jordan Williams 13 Mitchell Stone
Subs (all used)
14 Sadiq Adebiyi
5 Callum Bustin 16 Rob Butler
17 Rhys Joel
18 Michaelangelo Butet
Tries: Boafo (12,16,74), Butet (70), Williams (80)
Goals: Welldon 4/5
Penalty count: 5-7
Half-time: 16-10
Referee: Jack Smith
Attendance: 468
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 0-10, 4-10, 10-10, 16-10, 22-10, 20-16, 20-22, 20-28
