Skolars finalise friendlies and take on Wigan

London Skolars have announced a third friendly fixture in advance of the start of the 2011 season. Skolars visit Wigan Warriors to take on their Under 20s side, who like their senior counterparts won the Grand Final last year. The game will take place at the Co-operative Community Stadium, Orrell on Saturday 29 January. Kick-off time is 2.30 pm.

Skolars’ opening friendly is this Saturday (15 January) when they take on St Mary’s College, Twickenham. The games kicks off at 1pm at New River Stadium.

The pre-season Capital Challenge game against Quins RL is now an annual feature of the fixture list. The game takes place again at the historic HAC ground in the heart of the City of London on Friday 21 January with a 2pm start. The game is once again being sponsored by ETF Securities.

It’s the first time for several years that the club has played an away pre-season friendly. “Given the geographical issues and the fact that we’ll be travelling up the M1 regularly all season it is not always practical to arrange friendlies in the north”, commented Skolars’ Director of Rugby Mark Croston. “However, we’ve often gone into the Northern Rail Cup with only one game under our belt and that has not always helped us. This season we want to make sure we have some further match preparation in addition to the rest of our pre-season training”.


“St Mary’s are one of the top student sides in the south and it will be good for the Skolars to get back to their roots in this game. We’re also delighted that Wigan Under 20s have agreed to play us. The last couple of years has seen many of the players from that side move swiftly into regular places in their Super League side, so we know that will be a tough game”.