Match report by Ian Rigg – Park Lane – Sunday
Swinton Lions 74 – London Skolars 4
Swinton Lions completed the double over Skolars with an emphatic victory which keeps them well and truly in the play off positions.
The home side went ahead in the third minute when Jordan James slipped a nice short pass near the line for Richie Hawkyard to go in by the posts and Chris Atkin converted and this was quickly followed by a brace from winger Mike Butt when firstly Rhodri Lloyd got him over and the second came from a scrum move with Butt finishing it in the corner and Atkin added one more conversion.
Skolars were on the defence for most of the first half and were forced to concede a goal line drop out on fourteen minutes which saw Lloyd add to the try tally when he went over on the left and Atkin was on hand to convert again. Butt completed his hat trick on eighteen minutes when Atkin put him away to score in the corner but the conversion was missed.
Try of the match came on twenty minutes when some super inter passing between Hawkyard, Atkin and Andy Ackers sent Ben White racing away to score under the posts and Atkin converted. Skolars went close seven minutes later when Will Lovell was grounded just short on the last tackle but the Lions got the ball back and then lost it in their own quarter and from the scrum Jermaine Coleman laid the platform for Sam Nash to score in the corner but Mike Bishay’s conversion fell wide.
Ackers added another try for the Lions when he scored from close range under the posts and Atkin converted again and in the dying seconds of the half Lamont Bryan went close for Skolars.
Skolars started the second half well and Coleman kicked a forty-twenty only to see his side lose the ball in the second tackle and Stuart Littler added another good try created by an Atkin cross field kick which was caught by Harry Aaronson and he past back inside for the centre to race in and score with Atkin converting. Two more quick tries followed with White and Josh Barlow both going over and Atkin added another conversion.
Aaronson added the next try when Littler kicked through the Skolars defence and the ball bounced up nicely for him to collect and race away to score. Littler then created the next try for Hawkyard who supported his break to race in on the right and then with eleven minutes left it was Littler again who provided the break for Hawkyard to complete his hat trick and Atkin converted one of his two tries.
And with seven minutes left Aaronson scored his second try from a big overlap on his wing but this too went unconverted.
Teams :
Lions :-
1. Richie Hawkyard
25. Harry Aaronson
3. Stuart Littler
29. Rhodri Lloyd
28. Mike Butt
6. Ben White
7. Chris Atkin
8. Mike Morrison
9. Andy Ackers
24. Jordan James
17. Andy Thornley
23. Connor Dwyer
31. Rob Lever
Subs (All Used)
10. Ben Austin
13. Tommy Gallagher
30. Josh Barlow
11. Grant Beecham
Tries : R.Hawkyard (3,58,69), Butt (6,10,18), Lloyd (15), White (20,46), Ackers (32), Littler (44), Barlow (50), Aaronson (57,73).
Goals : Atkin 9/14
Skolars :-
1. Chris Bishay
2. Sam Nash
3. Matt Cook
4. Joe Price
5. John Paxton
6. James Anthony
7. Jermaine Coleman
8. Michael Sykes
9. Mike Bishay
10. David Williams
11. Kazeem Faturoti
12. Will Lovell
13. Lamont Bryan
Subs (All Used)
17. Anthony Cox
16. Louis Robinson
14. Aaron Small
15. Billy Driver
Try : Nash (32)
Goal : M.Bishay 0/1
REF : Jon Roberts
Att : 401
Pens : 6-4
H-T : 38-4
Prog Score : 6-0,10-0,16-0,22-0,26-0,32-0,32-4,38-4,44-4,50-4,54-4,60-4,64-4,70-4,74-4.
Men of Match
Lions : Stuart Littler
Skolars : Lamont Bryan
Gamestar : Lions centre Stuart Littler rolled back the years to score one himself and create two for full back Richie Hawkyard.
Gamebreaker : The Lions attack just blew Skolars away and they had no real answer for it.
John Duffy : We started very well and we lacked a bit of line speed at times but we spoke about it at half time and things improved. We threw the ball about quite a bit today and scored some good tries off the back of it but it may be plays we don’t try in other matches when you are under more pressure but all in all very pleased with the performance today.
