Lymm's honest endeavour falls just short

LYMM Rugby Union Club welcomed South Leicester for their first ever visit to Crouchley Lane keen that their hospitality would not be as generous at it had been in the heavy victory that they had handed to South earlier in the season.
The heavy unforecast rain and hail that had fallen earlier in the day had caused the ground staff palpitations as their hard work of the week looked at one stage as it might have been in vain. In the end though all was well, with Beechwood able to host three, highly competitive matches.
The Lymm team showed a few minor changes from the one that had won at Scunthorpe last time out. A new second row partnership of Steve Williams, (back from holiday), and Harvey McCormack (off the bench) allowing Sion Williams and James Yates to drop into the back row. This in turn allowed Adam Bray to assume the hooking role and returning Club Captain Ollie Higginson to be used as an impact player off the bench, a role shared by Tim Oakes, fresh from his trip to Mexico. The backs were unchanged.
Conditions were always likely to mean that this was a close run, attritional affair – and so it proved. The early exchanges were keenly contested without much in the way of clear advantage or chances being created. In fairness, Lymm probably enjoyed the best of the first 25 minutes in terms of both possession and territory and were good value for their slight, 6-3, early lead. On 25 minutes though Lymm failed to capitalise on the opportunity to put real pressure on SL when their left winger managed to evade the Lymm kick chase and take play from inside the South 22 to Lymm territory.
The Souths built on this momentum and put their own pressure on Lymm resulting in a period of defensive scrums, free kicks and penalties within the Lymm red zone. To the neutral spectator there was a degree of inevitability in the eventual outcome on 30 minutes – a team card for prop Widdrington followed by a penalty try to SL. The half finished without any further scoring, Lymm undoubtedly relieved to have survived the 10 minutes whilst Widdrington was taking a breather 6-10.
The second half started in a similar fashion to the first. Lymm’s endeavour suggesting that this was a match they could win and SL’s resolve thwarting them when a score looked possible. On 42 minutes Nolan added his third penalty to make this a one point match. Lymm were trying to be patient in breaking down the SL defence and enjoyed two periods camped on the SL line – the first ended when they were (harshly) adjudged to have obstructed right on the try line and the second, following an excellent break by full back Rowley, with a knock on. On 63 minutes came the move that probably decided the match. Good ball from their forwards allowed the SL backs to make direct, purposeful inroads into Lymm territory.
Crisp offloading took them into the 22 then recycling and patience created an overlap on the right which the SL fly half exploited with a precision kick into the arms of his unmarked right wing – 17-9 to SL. A further Nolan penalty on 69 minutes brought Lymm within a score, still all to play for. Lymm were now in the ascendency and the remainder of the match was pretty much played out in the SL half. A great break by Baker in the final few minutes of the match almost levelled the scores – but the offload didn’t quite go to hand when the line was beckoning. When the final whistle went the SL players celebrated as if they had won the league – which highlighted both the closeness and the fiercely competitive nature of the match.
Despite the loss, Lymm can take great heart from their performance against a big physical side in difficult conditions. Their defence was immense with fly half Knowles tackling line a back row forward and the “back three” not missing a high ball all day. Perhaps though on the day there were just a few too many mistakes at critical times.

Team:
1) Jordan Widdrington, 2) Adam Bray, 3) Joe Cooper, 4) Steve Williams, 5) Harvey McCormack, 6) James Yates, 6) 7) Kieron Williams, 8) Ollie Higginson (C), 9) Tom Baker, 10) Joe Knowles, 11) Cormac Nolan, 12 Tom Bray, 13) Giles Dugdale, 14) Matthew Barnes-Smith, 15) Andy Rowley, SUBS: 16) Steve McEvoy, 17) Ollie Higginson(C), 18) Tim Oakes