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Capital Challenge 2020 - London Skolars v Wigan Under 19


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The traditional opening fixture to the Rugby League season down south was a case of men against boys and the boys schooled the Skolars to the tune of a 70-6 hiding in a 10 a side 4 quartered game. This year not only did the crowd appear smaller than in previous years but the sideline spectators watched from the other (building side).. Some quality tries and offloading from the Wigan youth . Skolars only threatening the line on about three occasions once a forward breaking through the line and then seemingly not knowing what to do next. A disallowed try for a forward pass and a try just before the end in the bottom right hand corner. I think Wigan would have set a target of keeping the Championship one club scoreless at the break so it could be your paying for your fish & chip suppers tonight lads...

I have to say watching the Skolars have convinced me finally to back the two leagues of 10 Rugby League proposal. There is simply too big a gulf between Championship one and the rest.

Siome photos from the game

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Last few seasons have been more competitive. We’re playing Broncos in a couple of weeks. The hospitality was sold out so from finance perspective I’m sure it was a success. I’m not golfing out a lot of hope this season. We were geared up last year, hoping for the investment, did ok but didn’t realise this potential. There’s some continuity this year but I think it’s gonna be tough. 

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The Skolars team today was noticeably missing their big pack from previous seasons & some of their more experienced players were injured or absent (possibly unable to get time off work/may not have signed up again for another season.)

They used quite a lot of players that had been in their u20 reserves last season (who played in the 2nd tier of the london amateur leagues). In the past 5 years I have attended the HAC Wigan event these younger players would definitely not have made the squad and they are not at league 1 standard yet. It is good that Skolars have these players involved with the club for the future, but if they are needed to be used this season then Skolars are going to struggle. (The Coventry team I saw last week looked to be significantly fitter/stronger/more organised.)

Adding in a couple of very recent signings, it was clear the team had not played/trained together for any significant amount of time.

I’m not trying to be negative, just give an accurate representation of the reason for the dominance of Wigan’s reserves/academy team.

Finally, it should be noted a number of Skolars promising youth products are in the Broncos reserves & academy currently. The event today will have raised much needed funds for the club & helped raise awareness of Skolars & rugby league ’down south’.

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Dead man inc who were their experienced players missing and members of their big pack you are referring too?? You say it looked like the tram hadn’t trained much or played together? Most of the squad names were at Skolars last season so they have played together many times. I think we will struggle to win many games. Club is going backwards in and off the pitch. What would Wigan have got out of yesterday’s game not much, they probably won’t come down again. 

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Match was reduced to 10 a side due to waterlogging on the pitch (side speccies normally stand on) and was a compromise as HAC wanted to call game off. 

 

 

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5 hours ago, Londonfan said:

Dead man inc who were their experienced players missing and members of their big pack you are referring too?? You say it looked like the tram hadn’t trained much or played together? Most of the squad names were at Skolars last season so they have played together many times.

I keep an eye out on their results & go to some games, but I am not an expert and their season ticket holders will know far more than me.

From what I could make out yesterday, the players who represented Skolars last season regularly, but did not play against Wigan included:-

Omari Caro, Eddie Mbaraga, Michael Sykes, One of the Greenhalgh twins, Lamont Bryan, Liam Scott, Jerome Williams, Jymel Coleman, Jermaine Coleman (I think I can recall the coach Jermaine playing a bit last year, but not certain).

Jacob Ogden, James Meadows, Daniel Hindmarsh (London Broncos duel reg)

Craig Mullen, Joe Brown (Wigan loans)

The above list may not be a complete list & I could have got a couple of players confused.

 

 

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I would imagine the 3 broncos lads will play reserves for London rather than Skolars this season and they won’t get any Wigan players on loan now. I’ll have to see how many others you mentioned have resigned. A few of them like mbarga, Sykes and Bryan would be well into their 30s with their best years well behind them 

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48 minutes ago, Londonfan said:

I would imagine the 3 broncos lads will play reserves for London rather than Skolars this season and they won’t get any Wigan players on loan now. I’ll have to see how many others you mentioned have resigned. A few of them like mbarga, Sykes and Bryan would be well into their 30s with their best years well behind them 

I don’t know who is going to sign again, or even if new signings are being targeted by the Skolars.

My post was just trying to show the number of players missing from last years set up and give some background to the experience level of the team yesterday and the score compared to previous HAC games.

I would think the Broncos lads mentioned are very likely to figure in their own 1st team.

Skolars in my opinion deserve a lot of credit for their community work & I hope that they can get the necessary investment into the club to help them grow and succeed further.

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I went along yesterday for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was, though, a bit strange watching a game where the touchline on one side had been brought in by, I think, 15 metres.

Probably the best part of the day was chatting with other rugby league fans who live outside of the heartlands and sharing tales from yesteryear of games we saw when we lived up north.

 I hope to get the opportunity in the future to visit again.

 

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