London Skolars 32 London Broncos 30
Skolars’ second pre-season saw them take on a young London Broncos side, determined to keep up the visitors’ unbeaten record between the clubs. It took a strong defensive effort in the last five minutes for Skolars to hold out for a win.
Skolars started by regaining the ball straight after kicking-off. They then moved the ball out to the right wing for Sam Nash to dive over in the corner. However, Broncos came straight back and when Lameck Juma leapt to catch a kick on his own line, he was unbalanced as he landed, Gideon Boafa plucking the ball from his hands to score Rhys Joel adding the extras to put them into the lead.
With Broncos’ half-backs Rian Horsman and Oliver Leyland creating space for their threequarters, the visitors enjoyed good possession in Skolars’ territory and Rob Oakley slid over from dummy half to extend the lead. They went further agreed when former Skolars’ junior Daniel Hindmarsh-Taky who ran onto a delayed pass from Horsman to score.
Skolars fought back late in the half, starting with Sam Nash adding his second try of the afternoon. In the last minute of the half, Omari Caro found a gap in the defence to score under the posts. Jy-Mel Coleman converted to put Skolars 14-18 down at the break.
The start of the second half was a mirror image of the first, Skolars error allowing Rhys Joel to touchdown and then convert his own try. Skolars narrowed the gap with a try for Juma’s try three minutes later and started to dominate the game, with Phil Lyon driving the side forward. Jy-Mel Coleman’s 40-20 kick gave Skolars the ball close to the tryline and Eddie Mbaraga pushed his way past the defence to score. Omari Caro took over the kicking duties and coolly slotted the ball over from the right to level the scores.
Skolars chose to run three kickable penalties and Louis Robinson was twice held-up over the line before Jordan Williams went over on the left. When Jake Melling raced past the right side defence to score, it looked like the game might be settled, but Broncos worked their way back into the game. When Rob Butler pushed his way past the defence, Joel’s fifth conversion of the afternoon left Skolars just two points ahead and ruing missing five conversions.
With three minutes remaining, Broncos kicked high to the left, regathering the ball and then kicking to the right wing. Skolars got to the ball but then lost possession. That gave Broncos a scrum 30 metres out in the last minute. Broncos went for a chip kick straight from the scrum, but the defence was ready and Skolars could celebrate the win.
Skolars’ coach Jermaine Coleman felt it was “an unnecessarily nervous last ten minutes, having managed the game for the most of the second half, but we made a few sloppy errors and let in a few soft tries”.
LONDON SKOLARS
1 Elliott Hall
25 Sam Nash
3 Jake Melling
19 Omari Caro
4 Lameck Juma
6 Jy-Mel Coleman
7 Mike Bishay
8 Louis Robinson
14 Charlie Lawrence
25 Michael Sykes
11 Jordan Williams
12 Eddie Mbaraga
13 Ryan Chester
Subs (all used)
9 Phil Lyon
15 Will Martin
16 Michael Brown
20 Olly Purslow
4 Olly Toms
18 Lamont Bryan
Tries: Nash (1, 36), Caro (40) Juma (44), Mbaraga (48), Williams (56), Melling (63)
Goals: Coleman 1/4, Caro 1/3
BRONCOS
1 Gideon Boafa
16 Josh Hodson
3 Kam Pearce-Paul
4 Will Blakemore
5 Ryan Couch
6 Ryan Horsman
7 Oliver Leyland
8 Rob Butler
9 Rob Oakley
10 Matt Savage
11 Jacob Jones
12 Daniel Hindmarch-Takyi
13 Rhys Joel
Subs (all used)
18 Christian Gale
15 Kai Pearce-Paul
2 Jessie Fern
17 Caley Gray
4 Chris Ball
19 Adam Green
20 Junior Bray
– Tom Scott
Tries: Boafa (6). Oakley (20), Hindmarsh (34), Joel (41), Butler (75)
Goals: Joel 5/5
Penalty count: 9-7
Half-time: 14-18
Referee: Matt Rossleigh
Attendance: 724
SCORING SEQUENCE: 4-0, 4-6, 4-12, 4-18, 8-18, 14-18, 14-24, 18-24, 24-24, 28-24, 34-24, 34-30
