London Skolars suffer defeat to Rochdale Hornets

London Skolars failed to break down the Rochdale Hornets defence, falling to a 22-4 defeat despite being in contention for a large part of the game.

The torrential rain the morning before the game held off for the first half hour, but it was slippery underfoot at Spotland as Iliess Macani soon discovered when he couldn’t avoid being dragged into touch when he tried to take the ball close to his own line.

Hornet’s winger Shaun Robinson was also bundled into touch as he went for the line, but was more successful when they next attacked down the left.

With heavy rain starting to fall, both sides struggled to maintain possession and with the half-time hooter about to sound, Jacob Thomas took the opportunity to kick for goal after a penalty to narrow the margin to 4-2 at the break.

After Zac Baker was sin-binned for a high shot on him, Thomas levelled the scores with another penalty.

Five minutes later Rochdale took the lead again when Lewis Sherdan broke the main line of defence from the half-way line, before dummying to avoid the remaining defence to score.

Skolars’ hope were dashed when Tom Whur scored with his first touch of the ball, the loan player from Hull HR coming on late from the bench, with Sheridan rounding off the scoring with a couple of minutes remaining,

Skolars have a week off before they play their annual Friday Night Lights game on July, 16 the night before the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley.

The opposition this year will be Doncaster that visit the New River Stadium.

There will be fan contests, a beer garden, live music street food on offer with kick-off at 7pm.