BetFred League 1 – 8th August 2021
London Skolars 34
Rochdale Hornets 38
For the second week running Skolars came tantalisingly close to a win, all the more remarkable on Saturday as they played a man down for the last jour of the game.
They got off to a bad start, losing possession when receiving the kick-off. Paul Brearley strode over to open the scoring and his pass opened a gap for Dan Nixon three minutes later. Sean Penckywicz’s pass made good use of the post splitting the defence trying to reach Jordan Syme and Hornets were eighteen points up.
However, Penkywicz was sin-binned along with Aaron Small for their part in a fight. Two minutes later Skolars were down to eleven when Kam Pearce-Paul was red-carded, dropping off a two-man tackle whilst the Rochdale player had been lifted in the air.
Skolars began their comeback when Mal Lloyd-Jones broke the defensive line to score, then Max Clarke dived in at the right corner. When Shaun Ainscough was stopped by two defenders 20 metres out, Hornets’ move looked to have petered out, but Skolars failed to clamp the ball, Brearley racing up to receive the ball to score his second try. Paul Thorman kicked a penalty after the hooter to reduce the deficit back to ten points.
Skolars narrowed the gap soon after the break collecting a short Neil Thorman pass, the conversion hitting the posts. The same thing happened to Reece Dean after Penkywicz slipped the ball out to Tom Ashton.
It was back and forth throughout the second half. Tom Firth returning after a month out took a short pass from Christian Gale. At the other end, Pencywicz again delivered the crucial pass, this time to Luke Fowden. Juma broke from his own half, Rochdale then had to defend a goal-line drop out. When Skolars received a penalty ten metres out, Thorman took it quickly, offloading to Lamont Bryan who was unstoppable from that range.
Hornets had to work hard to get out of their own half, with five tackles taking them twelve metres from their tryline, but Dean’s kick went 80 metres and Skolars then had to start from deep in their half. Myles Harrison took a high ball close to Hornets’ line, but broke the defence and Luke Littlewood continued the break to score, Dean again hitting the post.
There was still a slim hope for Skolars when Juma went over with two minutes to go, but they lost the ball on the next set and Hornets held on to stay in play-off contention.
LONDON SKOLARS
7 Iliess Macani
16 Max Clarke
3 Aaron Small
24 Kam Pearce-Paul
5 Lameck Juma
6 Jacob Thomas
11 Jermaine Coleman
10 Lamont Bryan
9 Neil Thorman
18 Matt Ross
21 Paulos Latu
12 Chris Ball
13 Mike Greenhalgh
Subs
19 Judd Greenhalgh
15 Malakhi Lloyd-Jones
14 Tom Firth
20 Christian Gale
Tries: Lloyd-Jones (26), Clarke (32), M Greenhalgh (43), Firth (52), Bryan (67), Juma (78)
Goals: Thorman 5/7
Sin-bin Small (18) – fighting
Dismissal: Pearce-Paul (20)- tip tackle
HORNETS
29 Cian Tyrer
26 Alwyn Towse
27 Dan Nixon
8 Tom Ashton
2 Shaun Ainscough
31 Paul Brearley
40 Reece Dean
10 Gavin Bennion
9 Sean Penkywicz
22 James Connaughton
11 Josh Jordan-Roberts
16 Todd Warren
12 Jordan Syme
Subs (all used)
28 Luke Littewood
18 Luke Fowden
25 Myles Harrison
24 Ben Forster
Tries: Brearley (2,31), Nixon (5), Syme (12), Ashton (49), Fowden (57), Littlewood (76)
Goals: Dean 5/7
Sin-bin: Penkywicz (18) – fightiing
Penalty count: 9-7
Half-time: 14-24
Referee: James Vella
Att: 208
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 0-12, 0-18, 6-18, 12-18, 12-24, 14-24; 18-24, 18-28, 24-28, 24-34, 30-34, 30-38, 34-38
