RUGBY LEAGUE
SOUTH WALES IRONMEN .................... 16 LONDON SKOLARS .... 24
LONDON Skolars were given a battle in Merthyr Tydfil but in the end, the 24-16 win over South Wales Ironmen was a fair result, writes Ian Golden.
Ironmen, who were missing a few first choice players, fielded five debutants, all of whom had come through the South Wales development system, including prop Connor Parker who has just spent two years in the Widnes Vikings academy. Skolars in turn fielded four debutants, two of whom came through the just as impressive London youth ranks.
First try came for Skolars on the back of a repeat set culminating with Eddie Mbraga scoring in the corner. Charlie Lawrence converted.
They were soon in for a second with Lameck Juma flying over on the opposite wing and again Lawrence had no problem in adding the extras.
Ironmen got a try back on their first real attack. Courtney Davies was slipped the ball and he dodged through a few Skolars players to score before converting it himself.
Skolars soon addressed the balance as Louis Robinson was given too much space to score just right of the sticks making it easy for Lawrence to convert. The hooker added a penalty just before the break to further increase his side’s lead.
Three successive penalties awarded against the Ironmen near to their 20 metre line, put the Welsh under the pump, but to their credit, they held out well. Good defence also kept the Skolars out in their next series of attacks, although Ironmen debutant Lewis Hughes was denied a potential 100 metre try after the referee stopped play for obstruction.
Eventually the pressure on the South Wales backline took its toll and Sam Nash finally broke through for Skolars’ fourth try of the day, Lawrence missing a conversion for the first time in this game.
Ironmen didn’t give up and were rewarded with a try. Following a few penalties at the London end, Connor Farrer eventually found his way over the line with Davies improving.
Ben Jones scored in the corner with two minutes remaining but Davies’ conversion miss from a tough position meant that there was no dramatic final 90 seconds and the Londoners held on for the win.
London Skolars’ coach Jermaine Coleman said: “I’m happy we got through the game. We’ve played three now and they’ve gone to the same pattern, that is we built a decent lead but failed to kill the game off, and that’s some- thing we need to address. Like South Wales, we were missing a few key players and that can really hurt you at this time of the season when you need a fullstrength side leading you forward.”
Ironmen coach Phil Carleton said: “At halftime we felt we hadn’t done ourselves justice but we did everything I asked of them in the second half. We’ve come a little bit short but we’re making huge strides. We lost the same fixture 44-6 this time last year and this one by eight points. The London side have improved too and we were four or five players down. We’ll give Oxford a good test in the Challenge Cup next Sunday at The Wern.”