BetFred League 1 – 29 May 2021
West Wales Raiders 10 London Skolars 52
Skolars made it two wins on the trot with an emphatic win at Llanelli, with Omari Caro equalling the club record of five tries in a league game.
His hat-trick came in the first twenty minutes, with three very different tries. The opening score came in the fifth minute from a break down the right wing, the second when he took a kick from centrefield from Mike Bishay and the third came when West Wales tried to intercept what would have been a try creating pass, but they couldn’t hold onto it and he picked up a loose ball to touchdown, with Neil Thorman converting all three tries.
Skolars went further ahead when Thorman slipped a pass to James Tyas to crash through the defence. For the Raiders, Mike Connor lost the ball on the tryline under pressure from the defence, but they finally got onto the scoreboard just before half-time when Marcus Webb swerved around the defence 20 metres inside his own half before racing to the tryline, Will Ramsey converting to make the score 6-24 at the break.
The visitors re-asserted their dominance, again moving the ball to the right for Caro to score in the corner. With Thorman off the pitch he converted his own try. After Fraser Stroud evaded the defence to score for West Wales, Caro added a fifth try, taking a kick through from Jacob Thomas. This time Mike Bishay stepped up for the conversion, the only one Skolars missed all day.
Caro picked up kicking duties again a couple of minutes later after Jacob Thomas took a Christiab Gale offload to score after Eddie Mbaraga had made good yards from the kick-off. Gale scored himself a few minutes later. Caro converting to make it 26 points.
When Jy-Mel Coleman, on his temporary return to the club on loan from Hunslet, dummied before going in under the posts, Neil Thorman picked up the kicking duties again, leaing Caro two points short of a club record for points in a game since the club joined the professional leagues in 2003.
The match was played behind closed doors, as the regulations relating to professional sport and crowds in Wales due to Covid-19 still prevent spectators attending.
RAIDERS
4 Marcus Webb
20 Ryan Shallish
30 Callum Mulkeen
25 Jamie Laing
22 Michael Holden
31 William Ramsey
23 Fraser Stroud
8 Tom Morgan
15 Ashley Bateman
13 Morgan Evans
11 Mike Connor
17 Rhys Davies
12 Joe Burke
Subs (all used)
9 Daf Phillips
34 Ewan Badham
32 Ieuan Badham
27 Morgan Allen
Tries: Webb (39), Stroud (50)
Goals: Ramsey1/2
LONDON SKOLARS
6 Jacob Thomas
2 Omari Caro
3 Jonah Varela
4 Lameck Juma
25 Errol Carter
21 Jy-Mel Coleman
7 Mike Bishay
8 Christian Gale
9 Neil Thorman
10 James Tyas
12 Mike Greenhalgh
11 Paulos Latu
13 Will Blakemore
Subs (all used)
14 Tom Firth
15 Eddie Mbaraga
17 Mal Lloyd-Jones
19 Judd Greenhalgh
Tries: Caro (5,12,19,43,59) , Tyas (25), Thomas (62), Gale (68), Coleman (80)
Goals: Thorman 5/5, Caro 3/3, Bishay 0/1
Penalty count: 8-6
Half-time: 6-24
Referee: Tom Crashley
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 0-12, 0-18, 0-24, 6-24; 6- 30, 10-30, 10-23, 10-40, 10-46, 10-5
