By Ian Golden at New River Stadium
South Wales Scorpions suffered a fifth defeat in a row to London Skolars as the hosts dominated the second half of a scrappy game.
Like last week’s match at home to Rochdale, the Scorpions failed to build on a first half lead, but this week were unfortunate to have two second half tries ruled out.
Skolars’ win takes them off the bottom of the table as the Scorpions started their four games on the road with a loss.
The Welsh took the lead in just the third minute when James Tutuila fed Dalton Grant to ground in the corner. Murphy missed the kick.
Skolars drew level three minutes later when following a spilled ball, they won a second set of six just ten metres from the Scorpions line and took full advantage. Andy McLean scored under the sticks and Dylan Skee converted.
The home side carried on attacking as Dalton Grant went from scorer to saviour, catching Skee’s high bomb with a high jump to evade Alex Hurst. McLean was also short of the line and then held up over the line as Scorpions continued to defend well.
They then turned defence into attack and straight away it resulted in a try. Grant, whose athletics namesake used to train at this very ground, twisted and turned before crashing over the line and Murphy converted.
The third try was scored on 23 minutes when Haydn Peacock made a clean break from 10 metres to score his first try in a Scorpions shirt.
But Skolars hit back before the interval when David Stephenson set up James Anthony to run through and score. Skee converted.
They then took an 18-14 lead early in the second half when Michael Worrincy grounded under the sticks following a well worked move which Skee again goaled.
Skolars continued to dominate and won two successive goal-line drop-outs. From the latter, Skee dived over from close range and converted himself.
Skee then added a penalty for interference at the play the ball to give the Skolars a two-try cushion.
Scorpions thought they had a couple of tries back. The first was after a slick passing move when Murphy burst through to ground, but the score was ruled out as Peacock was cited for crossing.
Grant was then denied a hat-trick which was unfortunate as he ran the length of the field following a good move from the goal area, but the officials strangely brought play back 100 metres and awarded a goal-line drop-out.
Finally Scorpions scored on 68 minutes, Peacock over for his second after receiving the ball from Courtney Davies. Davies then converted to bring the score back to 26-20.
But the balance was addressed from Skolars’ next set as Alex Hurst ran through a gap in the Scorpions backline and Skee converted.
McLean rubbed salt into Scorpions’ wounds with less than two minutes remaining by kicking a drop goal to deny them even a bonus point.
Mike Worrincy completed matters by bursting through to add a further try and Skee kept up his excellent kicking record to conclude a 19-point win.