‘Lydney hit forty with dominant display.’
Report and Pictures by Roger Pike
Lydney 42 St Austell 20
Following a home draw at Regentsholme last week it was critical Lydney got a win in another home fixture to mount any promotion challenge writes Roger Pike. St Austell making the long journey from Cornwall always provide a stern test and so it proved but the Hosts produced a dominant display with a great second half performance to take all five points. With injuries to Alex Nelmes, Louis Jayne and Brad Dunn the squad was already being tested, Luke Hudson and Tom Rowe started with Mason Cunliffe joining the replacements.
Lydney dominated the opening encounters pressing the visitors line with centres Sam Harrison and Ben Large breaking through. Following a good break by Scriven the hosts won a penalty which they opt to kick into the corner. A good backs move followed and a strong run saw Henry Sleeman power over the line with a couple of defenders to score out wide for 5 – 0 after 10 minutes. St Austell did respond and with Lydney giving away a couple of penalties Matt Shepherd opted to kick for 5 -3. St Austell continued to attack and only a last man tackle from Tom Rowe stooped a certain score. With the game even Lydney finally started to get some good ball, a break from Kyle Frowen saw them move downfield. The visitors got a good attack going but a dropped ball was collected by Frowen who broke into the 22m area, moving the ball out wide to Sleeman who broke a tackle to recycle the ball back and the move ended with Conal Mills scoring in the corner, Barnes added the difficult kick for 12 -3. Lydney have a good spell before the interval with good breaks from Sleeman, Harrison and Mills, winning a penalty Barnes kicked to extend the lead 15 – 3. The visitors replied from the restart putting the hosts under pressure, another penalty saw Mills receive a yellow card. Taking full advantage of the extra man Kayden Michael scored, Shepherd again added the extras for a halftime score of 15 -10 which certainly did not reflect the hosts dominance.
Lydney started strongly following the halftime team talk and looked much more clinical in their play. Some good breaks from Rowan Mullis and Luke Hudson were starting to cause the visitors real problems. Another Hudson break forced the visitors to concede a penalty which Barnes knocked over for 18 – 10. The hosts then concede a poor try, at the kick off saw the visitors put in a nothing kick which was not delt with and hacked forward and Ben Plummer scored in the corner 18 -15. Lydney then took control, following another superb line out take from Hanslow who was dominant all afternoon they created a break from the highly impressive Frowen to go clean through, tackled by the last defender Sam Baker was on hand to collect the pass and score, again Barnes added the extras 25 – 15 after 60 minutes. Another good break from Frowen saw Henry Sleeman through but a knock on stopped another certain score. With the hosts now dominant another penalty saw the visitors down to 14, Barnes again kicked to extend the lead 28 -15. With the visitors trying to get back in the game it became end to end and very entertaining for the large crowd. Lydney now dominating the scrum were getting most of the field position with Harrison and Sleeman causing havoc in the visitor’s backline. The hosts emptied their bench, and the fresh legs upped the pace of the game. Following a good break from Sleeman Lydney scored the try of the game, the ball was switched side to side across backs and forwards before Rowan Mullis broke through, he then interchanged passes with Cunliffe before getting the final pass to score out wide, again Barnes converted and the hosts are out of sight at 35 -15. Lydney were now playing some good rugby and break from their own line however with a certain try beckoning the last St Austell defender goes for the intercept and scored a lucky try 35 -20. Lydney continued to dominate the closing encounters, a deft kick through by Barnes was collected by Mills but tackled short, captain Ben Large however was on hand to pick up and crash over, Barnes again solid from the tee ended the game 42 – 20.
Director of Rugby Sam Arnott commented ‘Delighted with the performance we worked hard to put things right from last week. For sure we should have scored more, the only disappointment being we gifted them some easy scores. We gave the team some instructions at halftime which they followed exactly and so we dominated the second half and got our reward with the 5 points. We still have plenty of improvement to come and it looks an exciting season with the young squad however next week will be a major test in our local derby fixture away at Matson.
Lydney – Rowan Mullis, Sam Baker, Gearard McGurk, Mike Massey, Pat Hanslow, Luke Hudson, Kyle Frowen, Rielly Scriven, Tom Broady, Brad Barnes, Conal Mills, Ben Large©, Sam Harrison, Henry Sleeman, Tom Rowe. Replacements Garrett Myers, Jack Knox, Mason Cunliffe.
