Crediton Away Match report

Report and Pictures by Roger Pike

Lydney travelled to the Blagdon Ground, Crediton in a must win game to get their promotion push back on track. The Severnsiders welcomed back Scottish League international Joe McClean into the centre, the pack was bolstered with the return of John Barker and James Walter, a late injury saw Rob White replacing Ashely Howells at hooker.

The hosts started the brighter and dominated the opening encounters, with some solid defence the Severnsiders soon had some possession and a good break from flanker Jordan Fowke set up field position in the 22m, a forward drive enabled scrum half Sam Arnott to pick up and score under the posts, Joe Hamlin added the conversion for 7 – 0 on eight minutes. Crediton responded from the kick off regaining the ball, a resulting offside in the Lydney defence saw them kick a penalty by Ollie Avery-Wright for 3 – 7. Lydney then started to manage the game and had some good possession, with John Barker making good ground, with some strong runs the forwards crossed the line only for the official to give a held up decision. Still on the attack Lydney continued to look dangerous but a sloppy pass was intercepted and Crediton countered deep into the Lydney half, another penalty saw them reduce the deficit to 6 – 7. Lydney responded immediately and put the hosts under pressure with a good spell of pressure, a couple of penalties were tapped by Lydney and a very quick tap and go from Sam Arnott saw him beat two defenders and score close in, Hamlin added the extras for 6 – 14 after 30 minutes. The hosts were still proving dangerous and another penalty saw them close the gap to 9 – 14. Lydney were making a few errors in the wet conditions which gave the hosts a chance to spin thy ball across the backs and winger Josh Woodward scored a converted try for a halftime score of 16 – 14.

With the score not really reflecting the balance of play Lydney started the second half strongly and a dropped pass on a couple of occasions stopped them from scoring further tries to regain the lead. The Severnsiders continued to work hard; the hosts could not handle McClean, Scriven and Barker who were making good ground all afternoon taking out numerous tacklers. Crediton then lost a scrum and Lydney spun the ball wide, full back Alex Nelmes joined the line and a good dummy saw him cut through the defence to score and get the lead back at 16 – 19. Crediton then had a solid period of pressure camped in the Lydney 22m, with Riley Scriven then yellow carded for a high tackle it was a massive 14 man defensive effort to keep out the hosts. Only some solid tackles on the Lydney line from Pugh, Walter and the impressive Stephens in particular kept the score unchanged. Lydney finally relived the pressure and got back to halfway and started to control the game again. A thunderous tackle from McClean saw the hosts emptying their bench as injuries told. A missed penalty kick could have extended the lead and give Lydney some breathing space but the solid defence in the last five minutes marshalled by McClean and Arnott saw the Severnsiders run out deserved winners.

Director of Rugby Chris Green commented ‘first half was a bit disappointing, we started well and should have scored more tries, and they had a good kicker who punished any penalties we gave to keep them in the game. The second half was much better however we spurned 3 or 4 try opportunities that would have given us all 5 points. Really pleased with the team performance, defence was good, although plenty to work on before we face a top of the table side Devonport Services in two weeks’ time’