It was a good weekend all round for the Skolars as every team who took the field came away with the spoils.
New River was a hive of activity from 9.30am on Saturday morning, as our U14’s who were gifted a week off from London Junior League duties took the chance to work on their skills with Head Coach Paul Quill as they look forward to the visit of Elmbridge Eagles this weekend.
Our newly-formed U13’s made up of many new players from our Community programmes also took the chance to train and continue to develop as a team whilst enjoying the sun before some of the players took the opportunity to ball-boy for the 1st team as they took on Oxford in a crucial League One encounter.
Our U16’s who are currently flying in the London Junior League, had a cracking 46-8 win against a strong and physical Oxford Cavaliers side. The rescheduled game, allowed both sides to play as a curtain raiser to the League One fixture, and they did not disappoint the large crowd that had begun to gather. London Skolars missing several key players, gained momentum through some fantastic runs by forwards Will Prior, Cameron Giwa-Mcneil and Fraser Piercy-Farley, with Alex Deery and Jayden Whitman providing some real threat behind the ruck.
First Team Squad member and Head Coach of our U16’s Dion Chapman was extremely proud of his players ‘it was a tough game out there today and credit to Oxford for being so hard to break down. They are a young side, but are extremely physical and our boys know they have been in a game today. Playing on the main pitch was a nice touch by the club and the boys certainly upped their game.
The Reserve Grade, made up of several promising U18’s and First Team players, hosted Richmond Warriors, on the Perth Road pitches across from the Main Stadium. A strong opening from the Richmond players resulted in a tight first half and as the Skolars withdrew the First Team players to enable them to watch the League One fixture, it was a tense start to the second half, however the Skolars had enough quality to overcome the Warriors and run out eventual winners 48-32.
Head Coach Paul Quill was equally proud of his charges ‘we were in a really tough game for around 60 minutes and fair play to Richmond who were up against a strong Skolars side for the majority of the game. However I am really happy with the way that we closed the game out, we don’t have the same team week in week out and it can get difficult with the changes in personnel, however we had enough quality, to see us over the line and we can look forward to the challenge of Hammersmith next week.’
