2010-01-23 Miller Homes Leagues Div.5 North
Garstang 3rd XV 15 v 3 Colne and Nelson 2nd XV
The Lions got back to winning ways again with a purposeful victory which saw good, and in some cases excellent, performances across the squad. With erstwhile Captain and Club President away in France throwing himself down a mountain on two pieces of wood Dr Ed O'Riordan stepped into the void left by Bobby and turned in an excellent performance at scrum half, marshalling his forwards perfectly and giving Iain Davies at fly half good quality ball.
Other performances of note were JC, who put in a gritty performance and played the last ten minutes with badly pulled shoulder ligaments which meant he only had one arm to use to any effect, Robert Jaques who put in a defensively excellent performance, the three guys who played on the wings, Ian Walling, Tim Leveridge and Stuart Ord, Greg Billington and Dave Parkinson who were also both on top form. I should also mention Tom Dainty here who turned up to bench with a bad knee and would have happily come on if needed.
The game started with the Colne scrum half kicking off straight into touch so the first meaningful contact was a scrum on half way. It was apparent from this first scrum that the Lions were not going to have the game all their own way as Colnes veteran pack hit the Lions front row with real power. This did not phase the Lions though who won the collision and proceeded to stick to their game plan (for a change some may say) with the forwards taking the ball up with a series of pick and drives and some penetrating smashes from Dave Parkinson at inside centre.
This gave Dr Ed and Mr Davies plenty of time on the ball and the first score came after twenty five minutes when, after three phases in the forwards, who had already been battering away at the Colne try line without success, Iain Davies popped up a perfectly weighted short ball for Dave Parkinson to crash over the line at pace. With Chris Duda nailing the conversion the Lions went in at half time 7 nill up.
With just one change being made at half time, with Stuart Ord replacing the maturing Tim Leveridge, the Lions carried on where they had left off, taking the game to a Colne side who were starting to up the pace of the game; their inside centre was making a number of good line breaks and was generally upsetting the Lions defensive pattern.
The first try scoring opportunity of the 2nd half came when Big Dave Parky yet again broke the gain line and with support in the rotund shape of Richard Ayers (what i was doing there i still dont know) just had to pass to his captain for him to score but no, Dave decided that it would be more fun to try and run over the opposition full back, who had other ideas and brought him crashing to the ground.
With the ruck area starting to break down ( the old heads on both sides were trying every trick they knew), a few minutes later the visitors gave away a penalty under their posts and Chris Duda nailed the points to take the Lions to 10 nil ahead.
This seemed to spark the Colne lads into life and the Lions then had to defend against wave after wave of concerted attacks, spearheaded by their rampaging number 12. Yet the Lions kept their line intact and all the visitors had to show for their efforts was a succesful penalty score (hands in the ruck of course).
With minutes remaining in the game remaining things were again looking worrying with Colne having a scrum on the Lions 22 yard line. Yet the Lions backs, who had played well all match turned defence into attack when a loose ball was hacked forward and ended up in the arms of Ian Walling who sprinted 60 yards and rounded the Colne full back to touch down in the corner. With the conversion missed the score at full time was 15-3 to the Lions.
Thanks to all the lads from Colne and Nelson who gave us a great game and played in just the right spirit without any niggle or mither and thanks also to the referee for a fair and honest performance which contributed to an entertaining game.
Team Captain Bobby Johnston commented (via satellite from his French
Chateau) ''fan xxxxxxx tastic lads''.
Squad: T Kenyon, R Ayers (Capt), G Inman, M Saxon, J Corless, S Almond (Vice Capt) H Almond G Billington, Dr E O'Riordan, I Davies, T Leveridge, D Parkinson, R Jaques, I Walling, C Duda Reps: T Dainty, S Ord.
