Lymm held at Bournville

THIS National League 3 Midlands game saw Lymm visiting the Edgebaston campus of Birmingham University where they were held to a 16-16 draw by Bournville.
Lymm were without Sion Williams (unavailable) but were pleased to welcome back Tom Darbyshire from injury. It was a very good pitch, in view of recent rainfall, but a gale force cross wind and intermittent rain created difficult conditions.
Lymm started well dominating both possession and territory but then conceded a succession of penalties. Showing confidence in their forwards, Bournville kicked to the corner, won the line out and despite Lymm’s gallant defence got over for a try under the posts.(7-0).This passage of play also brought the loss of Adam Bray, given a yellow card for a technical offence.
Despite this disadvantage at the scrums Lymm defended well and full back Andy Rowley, in particular, dealt with the many difficult high kicks to help Lymm gradually gain enough composure to finish the half on the attack. Adam Bray’s return brought parity at the scrums. John Millington, replacing Keiron Williams(shoulder injury) at flanker ensured that the fresh momentum was maintained. As half time approached captain Ollie Higginson stole a line out and Lymm advanced with a well disciplined spell of pick and go, led by Tim Oakes. The reward was a well struck penalty for Cormack Nolan(7-3) and a yellow card for a Bournville prop.
Lymm, now with numerical advantage drove forward again using their pick and go tactic before giving Joe Knowles the platform to kick astutely into the corner. A line out catch and drive was repulsed but then the backs almost worked a try but gained a 5 meter scrum and another yellow card for a Bournville forward. Lymm had no hesitation in going for a push over try which Higginson grounded. Nolan’s conversion kick failed from a difficult angle.leaving the half-time scoreline of Bournville 7 – Lymm 8.
Bournville made a better start to the second half keeping Lymm busy defending in their own half and then recaptured the lead from a penalty in front of the posts.(10 – 8).
Lymm responded by showing a determination to attack through gain line breaking runs from the forwards. James Yates made some important “hard yards” sucking in defenders and leaving more space out wide. Andy Rowley came on the overlap from full back and was almost in at the corner. Lymm kept up the pressure and a break by centre Tom Bray raised hopes of another score which came eventually from another Nolan penalty( 10 – 11).
Lymm now relaxed a little and found themselves desperately defending their slender lead for the next 10 minutes. A rare strong break away run by the Bournville winger, helped by a couple of missed tackles started the problems. Chances to “get out of jail” were missed through misjudged kicks when attempting to find touch. Then, as generally happens when defending for a long time, mistakes occur and penalties go to the attacking team. The first also brought a yellow card for prop Jordan Widdrington (13 – 11). With a man down and about 8 minutes left Bournville got another penalty ( 16 – 11 ) and things were not looking good for the visitors.
Somehow Lymm found the resolve to then produce their best in every respect. Ollie Higginson was leading, running hard at every opportunity, stealing line outs and setting up driving mauls. The commitment of the forwards was best illustrated by them now dominating set scrums, even winning the ball on the opposition’s feed. The backs response was equally good and several try scoring chances were thwarted more by last pass handling errors than the Bournville defence. In mitigation it is fair to say that cold wet hands and a gale were not helpful.
With the referee checking his watch Lymm won yet another line out. In the furthest corner and gathering gloom it was hard to see what was happening but John Millington emerged from the confusion as a very worthy try scorer (16 – 16 ) Nolan’s conversion attempt from wide out and against the wind was a good but unsuccessful attempt to clinch what would have been a well deserved victory.
Coach Chris Kinsey perhaps summed things up best stating “we left 2 points on the field.”
He was generally pleased with the team effort but will be looking for individuals to take a bit more leadership responsibility and be more clinical in their decisions and actions.
League leaders Broadstreet travel as first time visitors to Beechwood next Saturday. In this improving form and with a full squad available Lymm will be seeking revenge for the overwhelming 53-10 defeat endured in Coventry earlier in the season.
Lymm are still just above the relegation zone but are capable of springing a few surprises on the leading clubs in their efforts get out of danger.