Lymm 17 – 20 Ilkley Report by Andy Leach
THERE can only be one thing worse for a Lymm supporter than witnessing an all too familiar gifting of points to the opposition in a display that promised much but, ultimately, delivered little – and that is watching it and then having to write about it!
Buoyed by a strong pre-season, an outstanding Cup performance against Caldy and a great start to the League campaign with an away win at Billingham the previous week, the expectations at Crouchley Lane before this match were, justifiably, high.
The match day squad showed a few minor tweaks from the previous week – Shard back at scrum half; McEvoy into the starting XV for the unavailable Dugdale, his place in the squad being taken by Nolan; and 18-year old Baldwin onto the bench to make his League debut in place of “Tough Mudder” Rasheed.
Visitors, newly promoted Ilkley, had endured a difficult opening week and were clearly going to be keen to prove that they could mix-it at National League 3. However, with the pitch in fine condition and great weather for early-season expansive rugby, the portents for Lymm were encouraging.
From the kick-off Lymm, playing marginally against the elements, immediately exerted pressure on the Dalesmen combining strong running and good ball retention with the application of intelligent width to their attack. On 5 minutes, from a Lymm scrum near halfway, blindside winger McEvoy joined the line at pace, breaking through Ilkley’s three-quarter defence, linked with centre Tom Bray who then put full-back Knowles in for the opening score. Shard adding the extras from the 15m mark. 7-0.
The next period saw a sustained period of Ilkley possession which had them threatening the Lymm line, but throughout the Lymm defence looked composed and well capable of defusing all that Ilkley had to offer. The Lymm scrum was in the ascendency and Ashall in particular was putting in a strong defensive shift.
On 15 minutes, with the help of the referee’s whistle, Lymm worked their way up the field and the applying pressure on the visitor’s defence, forced a turnover and they spread the ball wide to stretch the Yorkshiremen’s defence, Knowles again dotting down. 12-0 This time the conversion was missed but the view on the home terraces was that one more score and the game would be won. This almost happened on 28 minutes when a fine break by Tom Bray just needed closer support for a certain seven-pointer, but instead his clever kick to the wing failed tantalisingly to deliver the desired result. As halftime neared, this correspondent jotted down that biggest danger to Lymm was likely to come from an Ilkley interception…… Halftime 12-0.
The second half started in curious fashion. With the referee not awarding any penalties all match for offside in the backs, it was inevitable that both teams would take advantage of this to some degree, resulting in a lack of mid-field space. Ilkely had the majority of possession, but didn’t really do anything with the ball; Lymm when they did get the ball tried too much too soon and, inevitably, were quickly back on the defensive.
Lymm’s game plan appeared to have been taken-off with the oranges at half-time and a reluctance to play for territory was, at times, mystifying. 14 minutes into the half and Ilkley got on the scoreboard with a penalty from 22m, awarded for pulling the maul down at a point when it seemed massively in Lymm’s interests to keep the ball above ground. Immediately from the restart there was an aerial clash between a Lymm player and the Ilkley full-back, who ended up leaving the field for medical attention – we do hope that the injury isn’t too serious and he soon returns.
After Shard had missed an ambitious penalty attempt, on 59 minutes came the key moment in the match when the Ilkley fly half intercepted on the halfway line and, although hauled in by the recovering Lymm defence, linked intelligently with his speedy left-wing to score. The successful conversion took the score to 12-10. 5 minutes later and there was almost a carbon copy score, but this time Ilkley’s support play failed to thwart the Lymm covering defence. On 66 minutes, a monstrous penalty from 40m put Ilkley’s noses in front and the Lymm nerves were tangible. 12-13
Lymm were still putting Ilkley under pressure and on 70 minutes, on their own 10m line the Ilkley scrum buckled under pressure from the Lymm eight – however they managed to salvage possession and the ball was flicked to the scrum-half on the blindside who saw a gap and showed great pace to race towards the Lymm line. Despite being hauled in, there was sufficient Yorkshire support to retain possession and recycle to allow the scrum half to cross at the second attempt. 12-20
Lymm now regained urgency and appeared to rediscover their mojo – albeit, not their decision making. On 75 minutes, being awarded a kickable penalty under the Ilkley posts, they opted for a scrum – despite audible advice from the crowd to “take the points”. Eventually Lymm did cross for a try, when Ashall forced his way over. 17-20
But with only 90 seconds left in the match it was unlikely to allow Lymm sufficient time to work their way back up field for the required winning score – so it proved. FT 17-20
Then followed a long trudge back to the clubhouse for post-match analysis and, of course, that pint of déjà vu! Next Saturday Lymm travel to play Sheffield.
Team: 1) Jordan Widdrington; 2) Ross White; 3) Nick Ashton; 4) Alex Kaihau; 5) Zak Lythgoe; 6) Joe McGrail; 7) Jake Ashall; 8) Adam Bray (C); 9) Tom Shard; 10) Rhys Jones; 11) Mark Wells; 12) Oli Higginson; 13) Tom Bray; 14) Richard McEvoy; 15) Joe Knowles; SUBS: 16) Dan Horton; 17) Will Baldwin; 18) Cormac Nolan
