London Skolars

The London Skolars are a professional rugby league club based at the New River Stadium, Wood Green, Haringey in north London. They were founded in 1995 and have been professional since 2003, operating in the Betfred League 1.[1] They also run an A-team (formerly known as Haringey Hornets) that play in the South Premier Division of the Rugby League Conference.

London Skolars
Club information
Full nameLondon Skolars Rugby League Football Club
Nickname(s)Skolars
Colours
Founded1995 (1995) (as Student Rugby League Old Boys)
Websiteskolarsrl.com
Current details
Ground(s)
CEOColin Browne
ChairmanAdrian Fraine
CoachJermaine Coleman
ManagerCharlie DeHaan
CaptainLouis Robinson
CompetitionLeague 1
2018 season12th
Current season
Uniforms
Home colours
Records
London League3 (2000, 2001, 2004)
RLC Challenge Cup1 (2004)
RLC Southern Division1 (2000)
RLC London & South Division1 (2002)
Middlesex 9s1 (2003)

History

Student Rugby League Old Boys were founded in 1995 by Ian "Hector" McNeil. They were initially created for post-university graduates in London, with a number of ex-student international rugby league players.[1] The team originally played at Hackney RFC. The club quickly went "open"; relying on players from the student game and London-based antipodeans as well as local players.

The club name was changed to London Skolars two years later as they nearly got a big sponsorship from Skol. After initial success in the London League, in 1997 the club became a founder member of the Southern Conference League (the forerunner to the Rugby League Conference), under the name North London Skolars, and won the inaugural competition.[1] They also moved to New River Stadium. Later in 1997, they entered the National Conference League and were the only club south of Sheffield in the competition for four consecutive seasons.

In 1998 Skolars hosted Strella XIII, the first time a team from Tatarstan had toured Great Britain. During the 1999 season, the Skolars toured Russia, the first time that an amateur club had toured the former Soviet Union.[1]

Skolars first team won the Southern Division of the Rugby League Conference in 2000 and the second team won the London League that same year. The second team won the London League again in 2001.

In 2002 the club applied to join the National Leagues and was accepted, the first club in eighty years to make the transition from the amateur ranks to the professional leagues.[1] The A team joined the Conference and won the London & South Division in its first year.

In 2003, the Skolars first season in National League Two, they finished bottom of the league,[2] but made further progress in 2004. They won the Middlesex 9s whilst the A team won the London League. The club dropped "North" from their name to become London Skolars. The appointment of Latham Tawhai as a full-time coach at the end of the 2005 season marked another step forward in the club's progress.

Tawhai left Skolars at the end of 2007 to become assistant coach at Harlequins RL and was replaced by Tony Benson.[3]

Tony Benson left his job at London Skolars at the end of the season due to the inconvenience of travelling from his home in Leigh, Greater Manchester. Callum Irving took over as head coach at the club, Irving was Tony Benson's number two in the 2008 season. He resigned in July 2009, citing personal reasons. Injured player Jermaine Coleman took over as interim head coach for the remainder of the season. The club appointed its first full-time chief executive officer in 2009, Phillip Browne, who was replaced in 2010 by Howard Kramer. The Skolars finished the 2009 in 10th position of the Championship One table, taking the wooden spoon with just one win all season and five points. London Skolars announced that James Massara, a Hammersmith-born thirty-two-year-old would take the reins as head coach at New River Stadium in 2010. In October 2010 the London Skolars appointed former Harlequins RL player Joe Mbu as their head coach.

In 2013, London finished 4th in the 2013 Championship 1 season. That was the first time they finished in the play-offs in their Championship 1 venture, although they didn't achieve promotion after being knocked out in the semi-finals.

In 2014, Joe Mbu lead the Skolars to 7th place out of 9. After a heavy defeat by Swinton Lions in the Challenge Cup at the beginning of the 2015 season, London Skolars released Mbu from his contract on 9 March.[4]

On 18 March 2015, Skolars appointed ex-player and then current Hemel Stags assistant coach Jermaine Coleman as head coach.[5] Coleman in his first season 11th out of 14 teams. Recruiting and retaining strongly, Coleman lead the Skolars to a top 8 playoff place after a 23–22 win over the Gloucestershire All Golds.[6]

2020 squad
London Skolars 2019 squad
First team squad Coaching staff
  • 14 Jermaine Coleman - CE
  • 15 Robert Tuliatu
  • 16 Liam Scott - HK
  • 18 Judd Greenhalgh
  • 19 Michael Sykes - PR
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22 Mike Greenhalgh - WG
  • 23 Will Martin - PR
  • 24 Billy Driver - HB
  • 25
  • 26 Thomas Hamer
  • 27 Phil Lyon - HK
  • 28 Jerome Yates - WG, FB
  • 29 Alfie Lawrence
  • 30 Seb Kolasa
  • 31 Ollie Toms
  • 32 Tommy Chipchase

Head coach

  • Jermaine Coleman


Legend:
  • (c) Captain(s)
  • (vc) Vice captain(s)

Updated: 11 February 2018
Source(s): 2018 Squad numbers

2020 transfers

In

PlayerClubContract lengthDate
Omari CaroBradford Bulls1 YearDecember 2017[7]
Kameron Pearce-PaulCoventry BearsN/ANovember 2019
Jacob ThomasDewsbury Rams1 yearNovember 2019
Shay NorthCastleford Tigers1 yearDecember 2019
Dalton GrantBradford Bulls1 yearsJanuary 2020
Max ClarkeLondon Broncos1 yearDecember 2019

Out

PlayerClubContract lengthDate
Jordan WilliamsLondon BroncosN/ANovember 2019

'A' team

London Skolars run an A team which compete in the South Premier division.

Juniors

Skolars run under-7s,under-9s,under-11s, under-13s under-15s and under-17s teams who all compete in the London Junior League.

Honours

League

  • RFL London League:
Winners (3): 2000, 2001, 2004
  • Conference South Division:
Winners (2): 2000, 2002
  • Conference Eastern Division:
Winners (1): 1997

Cups

  • Conference Challenge Cup:
Winners (1): 2004
  • Harry Jepson Trophy:
Winners (2): 1997, 2012

Nines

  • Middlesex 9s:
Winners (1): 2003

History of coaches
gollark: Apparently attempting to train this rapidly produces NaNs (even if I set the learning rate to 0 (yes, I know this won't actually train it, it was a test)). I may abandon this until it is the future and tooling/hardware is better.
gollark: My thing is now training on Colab, if somewhat slowly because FP16 refuses to work for no apparent reason.
gollark: Great*!
gollark: So what... training library/model implementation, I guess... isn't bad?
gollark: I doubt that would work for training very well.

References
  1. Oxford league inspires : Oxford Rugby League v. London Skolars (match programme). Oxford: Oxford Rugby League. 2013.
  2. "Hull KR shock Salford". BBC Sport. 8 September 2003. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  3. "'BENSON MAKES SKOLARS SWITCH". Sportinglife. 3 December 2007. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
  4. London Skolars » London Skolars Press Release – Joe Mbu Leaves Skolars
  5. London Skolars » Skolars Announce Former Player Jermaine Coleman As New Head Coach
  6. London Skolars » Jy-mel Coleman Secures Top 8 Spot for Skolars
  7. "Bradford Bulls utility man Goodall eyes Boxing Day debut". Telegraph & Argus. 22 December 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
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