The Eels travelled to North London on the hottest day of the year for a League fixture against the Skolars. For the Eels it was the first time many of these boys had played together for almost a year in a competitive League fixture, so the players needed to brush away the cobwebs and get those combinations working again. The aim of the day was to keep it simple, take the points and get through the match with no injuries. Two of those boxes were ticked but unfortunately the boys made a few mistakes and were on the wrong end of numerous decisions by the referee limiting their time with ball in hand. This seemed to frustrate the players which played into the Skolars hands as we often lost our structure and shape in attack. This meant that what should have been a fairly simple match ended up being a close affair.

It was however a good practice run for next week with the forwards performing well, particularly Tyler and Charlie in what was their second fixture each. In the backs Blake, Luca and Zac looked impressive with Dan his usual combative self and Tom looking more self assured in his new role. Rian came on in the second half to introduce a bit of zip and scored the try of the day by skipping through the Skolars defence and sprinting 80 metres to score. Plenty to improve upon but there were enough signs to show that the side are progressing well and hopefully looking to peak at the right time of the season.

Next weekend is the big one for us as we participate in the Rhinos Challenge against some very strong teams from the North of England.

Tries
C Rawlings 2
L Valentini
T Tomlinson
B Burns
R Horsman
E Michaels

Conversion
R Horsman 4