Kingstone Press League 1
North Wales Crusaders 50 London Skolars 10
Skolars fell to a heavy defeat in Wrexham and now face an uphill struggle to make the top eight when the league splits into two in mid-July.
The signs looked ominous early on, when James Dandy lost control of the ball when he went over the line. Ryan Chester was held up short of the line for Skolars, but then Dale Bloomfield broke the defence from deep in his own half before offloading to Ryan Smith to open up the scoring for the Crusaders.
Skolars won possession back straight away with a kick-off that found touch, but they dropped the ball early in the next move. When they conceded a penalty close to their own line, Simon Atherton dummied, the defence ran out and he had an easy run to the tryline. The next set of six saw Alex Davidson break from deep, with Smith again finishing the move.
Ben Pointer came on as substitute as Charlie Lawrence went off injured. He was held up over the tryline, then a few minutes later he picked up a dropped pass as the Crusaders paused in anticipation of the referee’s whistle, and they regretted that error as he hooker raced past them. Jy-Mel Coleman missed an easy conversion, leading to the home fans chanting “You’re no Dylan Skee” recalling their club’s first away game when the half-back scored 26 points and they heard his name announced 23 times (he was sponsored by his own fitness company).
Aaron Moore repeated Atherton’s move to score North Wales’ fourth try and they added another just before half-time when Bloomfield patted back a high kick to the wing, Like Warburton caught the ball and raced over to put the home side 30-4 up at the break.
Crusaders continued to dominate. Kenny Baker gathered a chip kick before offloading to Corey Lee to touchdown on the right wing, then Bloomfield scored out wide on the left. Skolars had a chance to score when Callum Bustin made a brea, but his pass to Michael Brown went forward.
Skolars fell for another dummy move from Aaron Moore, Danny Price kicking his seventh goal. Two minutes later the Crusaders hit the half-century when another Bloomfield break saw Smith record his hat-trick. A late consolation try came when Skolars’ player coach Jermaine Coleman kicked to the corner for Michael Brown to score. Jy-Mel Coleman added the conversion. It was only the second time the brothers have played together for Skolars, but both they and the rest of the side will want to put this performance behind them.
North Wales Crusaders
2 Corey Lee
19 Danny Price
28 Callum Mulkeen
16 Luke Warburton
5 Dale Bloomfield
26 Jack Hansen
7 Ryan Smith
8 Jonny Walker
14 James Dandy
10 Alex Davidson
24 Jack Houghton
3 Simon Atherton
13 Ryan Millington
Subs (all used)
27 Aaron Moore
17 Kenny Baker
32 Warren Thompson
23 Joe Bate
Tries: Smith (7,17, 73), Atherton (17), Moore (30, 71), Warburton (38), Lee (51), Bloomfield (57)
Goals: Price (7/9)
London Skolars
20 Jake Melling
1 James Hill
3 Josh Allison
4 Lameck Juma
24 Michael Brown
29 Jermaine Coleman
6 Jy-Mel Coleman
28 Callum Bustin
9 Charlie Lawrence
10 David Williams
18 Michael Greenhalgh
12 Eddie Mbaraga
13 Ryan Chester
Subs (all used)
27 Ben Pointer
19 Erjon Dollapi
25 Michael Sykes
30 Simona Vavega
Tries: Pointer (28), Brown (80)
Goals: Jy-Mel Coleman 1/2
Penalty count: 12-2
Half-time: 30-4
Referee: Steve Race
Attendance: 273
SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 12-0, 18-0, 16-4, 18-4, 24-4, 30-4, 36-4, 40-4, 46-4, 50-4, 50-10
