Gloucestershire All Golds 22 London Skolars 24: Late Charlie Lawrence drop-goals fire Skolars to success

League One: Gloucestershire All Golds 22 London Skolars 24

After last week’s last minute defeat, Skolars earned a late win in the league at Cheltenham with two Charlie Lawrence drop-goals in the last six minutes being the difference between the sides.

Skolars scored early on, quickly getting the ball out to the left wing for Michael Brown to touchdown. However, they conceded a drop-out from the restart and that saw Steve Parry burrow over for the home side. They went further ahead when a Kieran Hyde kick to the wing found Mo Agoro waiting unchallenged to take the ball and score. Joe Mclean scored from the next set of six, but Skolars then counterattacked, with a Jake Melling break being finished off by Brown. Agoro then scored his second when Billy Barkill split the defence on the right.

That put Skolars ten points down at half-time, but they responded well after the break. First Louis Robinson powered over under the posts, then Sadiq Adebiyi scored after Skolars had made five quick tackles to leave the defence reeling. Charlie Lawrence’s third conversion of the afternoon gave them a two point lead, but the scores were levelled when Hyde kicked a penalty goal.

Then came the two late drop-goals and Lawrence had a chance for a third, but hit the posts that time. Skolars had to withstand one last attack from deep, but they did enough to see off the All-Golds.

Skolars take on local rivals Hemel Stags this weekend in the Good Friday derby, with a 4pm kick-off, part of a double which will allow supporters to watch London Broncos take on Toulouse at lunchtime in Ealing before a dash round the North Circular to New River.