Skolars push Broncos hard in pre-season friendly

London Skolars lost their second pre-season friendly against a young London Broncos side, going down 36-22.

The Broncos team included three of the side that won promotion to the Betfred Super League in the Million Pound Game at the end of last season.

Skolars absorbed some early pressure, but held Broncos out after conceding a goal-line drop-out.

Broncos opened the scoring midway through the first half when Kai Pearce-Paul slipped past the defence to touchdown on the right.

James Meadows returned the kick-off deep into Skolars’ half and they conceded another goal-line drop-out.

This time Gideon Boafo made a diagonal run to score on the left wing and Skolars were 10 points down.

The next kick-off was better for Skolars as they earned a scrum ten metres from the Broncos’ line.

Charlie Lawrence was held up over the try-line, after Richard Wilkinson’s grubber kick had forced a drop-out, but Skolars couldn’t find a gap in the defence.

Broncos’ next attack saw Sam Davis go over from close range and two minutes later, Boafo scored his second try when he finished off a run from former Skolars’ junior Dan Hindmarsh.

A break from Josh Hodson saw Pearce-Paul score his second try just before half-time, leaving Skolars trailing 26-0.

The second half saw an improved performance from Skolars as Harrison Brough evaded the defence to score out wide on the right.

Boafo, however, was unstoppable again as he finished off a Meadows break, racing from the half-way line to record his hat-trick to put Broncos further ahead.

Two tries in three minutes saw Skolars narrow the deficit as first Jordan Williams brushed off the defence to score on the right flank, before Mike Greenhalgh went over from close range.

Williams set up Skolars’ fourth try as he drew the defence, before offloading to Neil Thorman, who added his third conversion.

However, the final say went to Broncos with Boafo yet again racing past the defence to score his fourth try.