BetFred League One – 3 August 2019
London Skolars 14 Oldham 15
Skolar’s narrow defeat at the hands of third placed Oldham meant they must almost certainly need to win their three remaining games to have a chance of qualifying for the play-offs.
Problems on Oldham’s journey down meant a delayed kick-off, but it was the visitors that were quick off the mark. Harry Aaronson made a break down the right wing. His run was stopped by Mo Agoro, but Oldham then swung the ball out to left for Cameron Leeming to go over in the corner.
Skolars had a couple of chances to score, with Iliess Macani and Rob Tuliatu both being held-up over the tryline. However, when they gave away a penalty on the fifth tackle on halfway, Oldham attacked with Dave Hewitt slipping past the defence to score under the posts.
The visitors were caught napping at a scrum on Skolars’ 20 metre line, when Iliess Macani took a pass on the blind side and raced past the defence to race to the other end of the field. Skolars had to a lot of defending with Oldham regularly looking to keep the ball alive when close to Skolars’ line.
As the half-time hooter sounded Oldham received a penalty five metres into Skolars’ half and Hewitt was successful to put his side 6-14 up at the break.
Skolars had the better of the early stages of the second half, starting with a break by Jerome Yates from deep in his own half. Neil Thorman kicked a penalty to narrow the margin to six points, but they soon found themselves again needing two scores to win after Hewitt kicked a drop-goal for the Roughyeds.
Oldham showed some determined tackling, earning a goal-line drop-out after forcing Elliot Jennings back over the tryline. Jennings back over the tryline. James Beckett, making his debut whilst on loan from Featherstone was held up over the line after a barnstorming run. Both sides defences dominated the later stages of the game, but with less than two minutes remaining, Omari Caro broke down the right wing from halfway. Neil Thorman kicked the touchline conversion to narrow the deficit to one point, but they only had time for three tackles and were stuck in their own half as the hooter sounded.
LONDON SKOLARS
2 Iliess Macani
5 Mo Agoro
3 Omari Caro
4 Elliot Jennings
1 Jerome Yates
14 Richard Wilkinson
21 Jy-Mel Coleman
10 Judd Greenhalgh
9 Neil Thorman
22 Mike Greenhalgh
12 Rob Tuliatu
11 Jordan Williams
18 Eddie Mbaraga
Subs (all used)
20 Matt Davies
15 Matt Ross
17 Liam Scott
16 Lamont Bryan
Tries: Macani (22), Caro (80)
Goals: Thorman 3/3
OLDHAM
5 Richie Hawkyard
21 Lee Kershaw
3 Zac McComb
29 Cameron Leeming
28 Harry Aaronson
15 Adam Brook
7 David Hewitt
8 Phil Joy
9 Gareth Owen
13 Jack Spencer
25 Danny Bridge
16 Danny Langtree
24 Liam Bent
Subs (all used)
10 Scott Law
20 Matt Wilkinson
12 Ed Smith
17 James Beckett
Tries: Leeming (3), Hewitt (14)
Goals: Hewitt 3/3
Drop-goal: Hewitt
Penalty count: 6-5
Half-time: 6-14
Referee: Liam Staveley
Attendance: 355
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 0-12, 6-12 6-14; 8-14, 8-15, 14-15
