Rugby League: Skolars gained a bonus point as they pushed Toulouse close.

Toulouse Olympique XIII 34 London Skolars 22

Northern Rail Cup - Saturday 26th February 2011

Skolars gained a bonus point as they pushed Toulouse close on Saturday.

They had gone behind early on to a Darren Nicholls try, following several dropped balls in rainy conditions that looked out of place in the south of France. Ade Adebisi was dragged into touch, but made amends soon afterwards stopping a penalty kick from reaching touch and winning possession back. The winger finished off the move by leaping to catch a cross-field kick from Dylan Skee. His second try followed four minutes later, finishing off a James Anthony interception.

Toulouse needed to win the game to be assured of a quarter final slot and they bounced back into the lead when Craig Cook drove over from dummy half and extended it through Yoan Tisseyre before half-time.

The second half started with both sides defending well and forcing goal line drop outs in attack, with Neil Thorman and Jy-Mel Coleman’s kicks both causing trouble for the home side. But it was the French team that broke the deadlock when Andrei Olari scored from a cross-field kick, soon followed by Josh Lewis slipping out of a tackle.

Skolars made a late comeback with two further tries. First Anthony kicked through for Matt Thomas to record his 100th point for the club, then Thomas’ pass set up Dave Arnot for a try. The gap was just six points with 6 minutes remaining and the possibility of a second successive draw was on the cards. However, an error by Skolars at the kick-off gave Toulouse field position and Brendan Worth scored to give relief to the hosts.

Match Teams/Stats

TOULOUSE

22 Damien Couturier
18 Andrei Olari
3 Sebastien Planas
20 Bruno Ormeno
24 Gregory White
6 Darren Nichols
7 Josh Lewis
8 Brendan Worth
9 Craig Cook
15 Jerome Gout
16 Sylvain Houles
12 Yoan Tisseyre
14 Antoni Maria

Subs (all used)

13 Eric Anselme
17 Kevin Larroyer
21 Nicholas Faure
29 Cyril Moliner

Tries: Nicholls (10), Cook (26), Tisseyre (30), Olari (58), Lewis (62), Worth (76)

Goals: Lewis 5/6

LONDON SKOLARS

3 James Anthony
2 Smokie Junor
17 Dave Arnot
4 Luke May
5 Ade Adebisi
7 Dylan Skee
1 Neil Thorman
8 Tony Williams
9 Gareth Honor
31 Saqib Murtza
11 Matt Thomas
12 Oliver Bloom
13 Stephen Ball

Subs (all used)

6 Jy-Mel Coleman
36 Dave McMeeken
16 James Simon
15 Olly Purslow

Tries: Adebisi (18,22), Thomas (67), Arnot (74)

Goals: Thorman 3/4

Penalty count: 6-8

Half-time: 18-10

Referee: Chris Leatherbarrow