Kingstone Press League 1 14 May 2016
London Skolars 26 Newcastle Thunder 46
A seven minutes spell either side of half-time where Newcastle scored 22 points saw Skolars fall to a heavy defeat and drop below the visitors in the league table.
A penalty strewn first half saw Skolars take an early lead after electing to kick for goal rather than run a penalty 10 metres from the tryline.
The lead changed ten minutes later when Benn Hardcastle threw a long pass for Tom Reudiger who split the defence for Joe Brown to score. They scored again after Skolars conceded a scrum close to their tryline, with Vincent Rennie racing past the onlooking defence.
Skolars narrowed the gap soon afterwards when Jy-Mel Coleman ran onto Mike Bishay’s grubber to score, Bishay adding the conversion. When Skolars next received a penalty close to the tryline, they ran the ball and that proved successful with Israel Eliab coming into the attacking line and offloading to Sam Nash who leapt to the tryline, grounding the ball one-handed.
However, with two minutes of the half remaining, Skolars conceded a scrum in possession then a penalty in defence and Rennie was unstoppable for his second try. The prop showed good hands two minutes later releasing Reudiger putting Thunder ten points ahead at the break.
There was worse to follow for Skolars. Kieran Dixon scored in the corner after another penalty. Hardcastle was carried off after incurring a shoulder injury in the lead up to the try, so Dan Parker took up kicking duties. Dixon was then involved in the next move coming inside before passing to Evan Simons, who scored under the posts.
Several injuries saw some long stoppages in play. Dixon joined Hardcastle on the bench with a shoulder injury and by the end of the game Skolars had two props in the centres. The penalty count did reduce in the second half, with just four penalties of which two came from Newcastle’s kick-offs going straight into touch.
Ben Gray pulled a try back for Skolars, but Thunder defended well at the restart with Skolars starting their sixth tackle on their own 20 metre line. That meant Thunder could attack from the first tackle and Peter Fox was just able to evade a Sam Nash tackle to score his side’s seventh try.
Charlie Lawrence, who worked hard throughout, put through a short kick to the in-goal, which came off a Newcastle body back to the hooker to score. Bishay earned a drop-out from a similar move. The whistle halting the game after a short kick-off saw Skolars stop play, but it wasn’t heard by Reudiger who clattered into an unsuspecting Eddie Mbaraga and inevitably it was Reudiger that came off worst.
A Ben Thorburn break saw Peter Fox continue and through Eliab stopped him, Craig Cook scored from dummy half. Skolars earned a late consolation try through Bishay, though he joined the injury list as he scored.
Amongst the crowd was a stag weekend party from Sweden watching their first game of rugby league.
SKOLARS
1 Israel Eliab
2 Sam Nash
3 Aaron Small
4 Lameck Juma
5 John Paxton
18 Jy-Mel Coleman
7 Mike Bishay
11 Toby Everett
9 Sam Druce
23 Ben Gray
10 Dave Williams
13 Eddie Mbaraga
16 Ryan Chester
Subs
14 Billy Driver
15 Mike Worrincy
8 Michael Sykes
19 Erjon Dollapi
Tries: Coleman (21), Nash (32), Gray (52), Lawrence (58)
Goals: Bishay 3/5, Lawrence 0/1
THUNDER
1 Tom Reudiger
2 Kieran Dixon
3 Ali Blair
4 Joe Brown
5 Peter Fox
6 Lewis Young
7 Benn Hardcastle
8 Vincent Rennie
9 Craig Cook
10 Rhys Clarke
11 Harry Aldous
12 Dan Parker
15 Evan Simons
Subs (all used)
14 Aarom Teroi
13 Ben Thorburn
16 Josh Stoker
17 Fran Welsh
Tries: Brown (13), Rennie (18,38), Reudiger (40), Dixon (42), Simons (45), Fox (55), Cook (72)
Goals: Hardcastle 3/4, Parker 4/4
Penalty count: 9-7
Half-time: 12-22
Referee: John McMullen
Attendance: 339
SCORING SEQUENCE: 2-0, 2-6, 2-10, 8-10, 12-10, 12-16, 12-22, 12-28, 12-35, 18-34, 18-40, 22-40, 22-46,
