Table-topping Lymm make it a magnificent seven!

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Report Neil Allen Pictures:Tim Martin

UNBEATEN Lymm entertained Otley on a warm autumnal afternoon in front of a bumper crowd at Beechwood, swelled by the Ladies Lunch as they made it a magnificent seven with a 53-22 victory over Otley.

Otley travelled over the Pennines with high hopes, confident that their performances this season were not reflected in their current league position. The expectation was that it would be a tight game, where Lymm’s unbeaten start to the season would be severely tested, in the end, Lymm swept the visitors away with ease, playing some exhilarating rugby along the way, to record the seventh bonus point victory of the season and leaving them clear at the top of the league.

In terms of the Lymm line-up, Ralph McEachran returned at prop and Rhys Lilley made a welcome return from injury in the second row. The dynamic back row duo of Josh Hadland and Harry Saxton-Martin who had been key to the Lymm defensive effort all season were missing, meaning starts for Nick Rigby and Seb Kelly. The influential Ste Pilkington was also unavailable in the centre, handing a start to Jack Stride.
Otley started well and dominated the early exchanges, and typical of many recent games Lymm found themselves on the wrong end of the penalty count. Lymm began to grow into the game and on 15 minutes scored the first of three first half maul tries. Having been on the receiving end of five catch-and-drive scores the previous week at Tynedale, Lymm had clearly been taking notes. Matty Hand was on the end of the first score, with the conversion slotted by the ever-reliable Tom Shard. 7-0 to Lymm and the early Otley threat was now well under control. The second pushover came on 20 minutes with hooker Rob Makin on the end of this one. Shard added the extras to make it 14-0 after 20 minutes.

Otley came back at Lymm, but the swarming defence of the home side led by Kelly and Rigby gave Otley nowhere to go. On 30 minutes Otley did get some reward for their endeavors with a penalty to make it 14-3. The penalty was awarded for a high tackle by the Lymm centre Toby Wilson, which also saw him sent to the bin.

This spurred Lymm into action and they finished the half in rampaging fashion. First up was Shard, who pulled to strings superbly all day, spotting the flat Otley defence, Shard dropped the ball onto his foot to grubber it past the on-rushing defence, Sam Wadsworth kicked it on and when the ball eventually bobbled up into his arms, Wadsworth was clear to splashdown to take the score to 21-3 with the Shard conversion. Lymm were still not finished, Shard added a penalty to take the score to 24-3 and on the stroke of half-time the home side added their third maul score of the afternoon, this time Rigby was the beneficiary. Shard missed from the tee to blot his first half copybook, but the bonus point was secured and a half-time score of 29-3 did not flatter Lymm.

lymm rugby

Lymm celebrate another try

Lymm came out in the second half with even greater intensity, determined to enjoy themselves. Within five minutes of the restart, Nathan Beesley scored his first of the afternoon following a clever kick-through from Callum Morris, which Beesley gathered to streak home. This was closely followed by a second for Rigby, who was on the end of some great interplay between Wadsworth and Paddy Jennings. 41-3 to Lymm and there was no sign of the scoring coming to an end, until a bizarre call by the referee saw Lymm reduced to 14 men for the rest of the game.
With Lymm getting on the wrong side of the off-side line too often for the referee’s liking he decided to issue a team yellow, inadvertently, or not, he picked out Wilson as the recipient of the team yellow. As this was the young centre’s second yellow of the afternoon it converted to a red, leaving Lymm with 14 men for the remainder of the game. Otley cashed in immediately to make the score 41-8 and were now focused on securing a 4 try bonus point.
Lymm had other ideas and much like the first half saw going down to 14 men as an extra incentive. Two scintillating tries followed from wingers Beesley and Jennings, the first showcased Beesley’s blistering pace, flying in from the halfway line rounding his opposite winger with ease, the second displaying Jenning’s power, the winger deciding rather than running round the defence, to run through and over any would be tacklers to touchdown. Shard converted the latter to take the score to 53-8.
The final 15 minutes of the half saw Lymm empty the bench and the game became fast and lose. The numerical advantage for Otley finally started to tell and they scored two converted tries, just missing out on a bonus point, but taking the final score to a more respectable 53-22.
The victory saw Lymm move clear at the top of the league, as Leeds could not secure a bonus point in their narrow victory over Sheffield. This was a complete performance with both forwards and backs contributing equally in attack and defence, a testament to the fitness, athleticism and skill of the young Lymm team. Next up is long away trip to Hull, which will be a further test of the unbeaten run.

Director of Rugby, Adam Fletcher commented: “I thought for 55 minutes we were superb. Our defence was aggressive and our attack clinical. It was really pleasing to see us score 3 maul tries. Mark (forwards coach) has worked hard in this area over the summer and it’s paying dividends. The red card changed the flow of the game but I thought we did well to prevent Otley from scoring 4 tries……………..overall, it was another great performance. Bring on next week.”
Head Coach, Andy Davies commented: “Otley played some quality rugby at the start of the game, which we did well to defend and deal with. We then started to get some possession and were just so clinical with ball in hand. There’s still a lot more work to do but the boys are rising to every challenge thrown at them! It’s a great bunch of lads who should be very proud of their efforts so far. But our attention now turns to a big away trip to Hull next weekend.”
lymm rugby
Ralph McEachran (15), Rob Makin (70), Matty Hand (113), Ben Thompson (35), Rhys Lilley (56), Nick Rigby (1), Seb Kelly (1), Oli Higginson (269), Cal Morris (44), Tom Shard (140) Paddy Jennings (58), Toby Wilson (2), Jack Stride (15), Nathan Beesley (73), Sam Wadsworth (22).
Dan Hunter (4), James Pitcher (73), Isaac Millachip (3), Ethan Kermode (3), Tom Manaton (5).


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Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.

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