Betfred League1 – 22 June 2019
Keighley Cougars 38 London Skolars 26
With Whitehaven and Hunslet both losing at the weekend, Skolars had a great chance to go level top of the league, but a poor performance saw them lose to a Keighley side that had been on a losing run for the previous month.
They chose to kick a penalty when close to the line after six minutes. Neil Thorman kicked the goal to put Skolars into the lead, but they didn’t get a better attacking chance until the final minute of the half. Some poor defending saw Jordan Parry over in the corner for Keighley for the home side to take the lead.
Keighley kicked a 40-20 but lost the ball early in the tackle count. Midway through the half, they forced a drop-out and as Skolars defended again, Robert Tuliatu, who had only just come off the bench, was sin-binned for a shoulder charge. Keighley took immediate advantage, with Jason Muranka finding a gap in the centre of the field on the next set of six.
An uncharacteristic error by James Barran at full-back gave Cougars another chance to attack and Jordan Aitchison went over on Keighley’s favoured right side.
Skolars were sixteen points down when Tuliatu returned to the field and they went further behind when Will Cooke made a break from forty metres out before offloading to Jack Miller. Skolars scored on the stroke of half-time with Iless Macani racing onto a kick through by Omari Caro. Thorman converted to narrow the gap to 24-8 at the break.
Macani came off the wing to score under the posts four minutes to the first half to give Skolars a chance of getting back into the game. Good runs by Tuliatu and Lamont Bryan helped, but Skolars made too many errors, conceding thirteen scrums on a warm dry day when handling should not have been a problem.
Ryan Wright and James Feather both scored from dummy half to extend the Cougars’ lead. Skolars forced a goal-line drop-out from the kick-off and Liam Scott scored soon afterwards, with Barran taking over the kicking duties from Thorman who was off the pitch.
Ben Hardcastle’s penalty steadied the home side and Mike Bishay’s late try, a from dummy half, was little consolation to Skolars.
COUGARS
34 Jordan Aitchison
20 Jordan Parry
4 Will Cooke
23 Macauley Hallett
21 Matt Welham
15 Jack Miller
7 Benn Hardcastle
19 Matt Bailey
18 Chris Cullimore
27 Lewis Wray
13 Jason Muranka
35 Dom Horn
9 James Feather
Subs (all used)
8 Jack Coventry
10 Jamie Thackray
11 Josh Lynam
36 Ryan Wright
Tries: Parry (10), Muranka (19), Aitchison (24), Miller (35), Wright (52), Feather (57)
Goals: Hardcastle 7/7
LONDON SKOLARS
1 James Barran
2 Iliess Macani
3 Omari Caro
4 Lameck Juma
5 Elliot Jennings
6 Jermaine Coleman
7 Jy-Mel Coleman
8 Judd Greenhalgh
9 Neil Thorman
10 Mchael Greenhalgh
11 Jordan Williams
12 Dan Himdmarsh
13 Lamont Bryan
Subs (all used)
14 Mike Bishay
15 Matt Davies
16 Robert Tuliatu
17 Liam Scott
Tries: Macani (40,42),Scott (61), Bishay (77)
Goals: Thorman 3/3, Barran 2/2
Sin-bin: Tuliatu (19) – shoulder charge
Penalty count: 7-5
Half-time: 6-6
Referee: Michael Smaill
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-2, 6-2, 12-2, 18-2, 24-2, 24-14, 30-14, 36-14, 36-20, 38-20, 38-26
