By STEVE MASCORD
SKOLARS fell to another defeat but pushed Rochdale hard, leading for most of the first half.
They took the lead early as Jarred Bassett broke through the defence on halfway before racing down the right wing to touch down. The home side responded quickly, a break from Keiran Rush setting up the attack which swung the ball out to their right for Cian Tyrer to level the scores.
After the heat of the previous week, both sides had to contend with driving rain, which made handling difficult the more the match progressed. Rush was yellow carded for Hornets and Skolars made the most of the numerical advantage. A Phil Lyon break saw the final pass go forward, but Aaron Small’s break saw Jerome Yates complete the move with Lyon converting.
They went further ahead two minutes later when Harry Kaufman ran onto a Lyon chip into the in-goal. Fui-Fui Moi-Moi was sin-binned for a high tackle on Jacob Thomas, who took no further part in the game after his head impact assessment.
Rochdale were down to 11 men two minutes later when Lyon was hit by a late challenge by Zac Baker. Lyon also had to leave the field, but returned later after passing his assessment.
Despite their short numbers, Rochdale managed to score just before half-time with Ben Forster pushed past the defence to leave Skolars four points up at the break. The scores were level after a minute of the second half with Hornets back to 12 men, Lewis Sheridan finishing off an Aiden Roden break. By the time Skolars kicked off again, Hornets were at full strength.
Skolars forced an error from a Lyon kick but couldn’t score from the resulting goal-line drop-out. Sheridan scored his second try soon after to put his side in the lead.
It looked as if Skolars might have levelled the scores when Eliott Hutchings touched down, but was adjudged offside from Lyon’s kick. The resulting penalty saw Rochdale move upfield when Ben Calland ran onto a grubber kick his side were two scores ahead.
Skolars kept attacking, forcing two goal-line drop-outs in quick succession, but couldn’t get through the tryline defence and it was Hornets who finished the scoring with a late try by Tyrer, Rush converting just before the final hooter sounded.
HORNETS
7 Lewis Sheridan
2 Cian Tyrer
3 Ben Calland
5 Dan Nixon
40 Jy Hitchcox
12 Paul Brearley
17 Cobi Green
10 Gavin Bennion
36 Kieron Rush
37 Fenton Rogers
24 Ben Forster
11 Zac Baker
13 Jovilisi Taira
Subs (all used)
28 Aiden Roden
8 FuiFui MoiMoi
39 Patrick Moran
19 Ben Killan
Tries: Tyrer (12, 79), Forster (39), Sheridan (41, 52), Calland (64).
Goals: Rush 3/4, Sheridan 1/1
Sin-bin: Rush (18) – holding down, Moi-Moi (31) – high tackle, Baker (33) – shoulder charge
LONDON SKOLARS
1 Jarred Bassett
2 Leighton Balll
3 Jacob Thomas
4 Aaron Small
20 Jerome Yates
6 Elliott Hutchings
7 Phil Lyon
8 Harry Kaufman
9 Neil Thorman
10 Christian Gale 11 Adam Vrahnos
12 Lameck Juma
13 Liam O’Callaghan
Subs (all used)
22 Anthony Cox
18 Matt Ross
21 Judd Greenhalgh
14 Abevia McDonald
Tries: Bassett (9), Yates (23), Kaufman (25)
Goals: Lyon/3
Half-time: 10-14
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-4, 4-4, 4-10, 4-14, 10-14; 14-14, 20-14 ,26-14, 32-14