LYMM Rugby Union lost out 34-19 to league leaders Stockport looking to test their recent improvement in form against a team aspiring to be promoted, after narrowly missing out in the play off last season.
Lymm were forced into changes. Bray was replaced by former skipper Fletcher and Sutton was rested. Darbyshire started with Adam Bray moved to 8 and Higginson to 6.
This game was largely one of ifs, buts and maybes. For the first 42 minutes Lymm dominated. If Rowley’s kicking form had returned Lymm could have been 6-0 before they did eventually take the lead on 17. An excellent rewind allowed Roberts to find Knowles and a lovely missed ball from the full back allowed Rowley to score in the corner. Successful with the conversion Lymm were 7-0.
Failure to turn this dominance into points was made to pay however. Lymm were adjudged twice to be not releasing on their opposition try line and came away with nothing on 5 or 6 occasions. Poor handling also prevented a further 2 tries.
Then the first of two massive refereeing decisions. On the stroke of half time Stockport equalized though the attacker had seemingly been tackled but was not penalized for not releasing. For Lymm to reach half time at 7-7 was barely believable.
Stockport now had the outrageous slope in their favour and were well used to up their power game downhill. 30 seconds after the restart Lymm were penalized. 10-7. Would Lymm crumble? No. David Williamson latched onto a pass from Roberts to go over, after superb 4th phase attacking from the visitors. 14-10 to Lymm. Could Lymm hold on? No.
Stockport play an effective, tight game and using all their power grabbed the lead again on 54, 14-17, with an unstoppable drive. Adam Bray was unluckily binned on 58 and the resulting penalty made it 20-14 to the hosts. Williamson went over again with a charge down but Rowley failed with the conversion that would have given Lymm the lead.
Another powerful rolling maul gave Stockport a further try on 66. 27-19. Then more pantomime refereeing. Kinsey took a tap penalty and was halted by the Stockport 4, who was clearly within 10 metres. The ref allowed play to continue, explaining later that he felt Kinsey had dropped the ball, but Stockport scored and sealed the win with the resulting try. The decision robbed Lymm of 2 bonus points at least and, who knows, a possible 5.
However Lymm could not fault the referee for the myriad of mistakes and handling errors that emphasize the need to take points when you can and turn territorial dominance into scores.
Man of the match Jake Ashall, whose work rate was simply outstanding, mirrored these thoughts “We had a good first half but didn’t take our chances. We need to be more clinical in attack and play well for the entire 80 mins. We will learn from this and come back stronger.”
Coach Kinsey wanted to highlight the positives. “Only scoring once in the first half with 80% possession was our downfall but we played at a pace that the league leaders couldn’t handle for 40 mins but we then let them dominate. We must learn lessons from this.”
Alex Bennett, player coach didn’t want to overlook the positives. “We remain well positioned to push forward.”
Lymm 1s have no game this Saturday but entertain Sandal on 13th November. Lymm 2s have an attractive cup fixture v Caldy 2s this Saturday kick off 2.15pm.
Team:
15 Joe Knowles 14 Jack Johnstone 13 Dave Williamson 12 Adam Fletcher 11 Andy Rowley 10 Andy Roberts 9 Chris Kinsey 1 Scott Harrison 2 Tim Oakes C 3 Jordan Widdrington 4 Sion Williams 5 Tom Darbyshire 6 Ollie Higginson 7 Jake Ashall 8 Adam Bray 16 Alex Bennett 17 Tom Baker 18 Lee Pickles
