‘Lydney lose another close encounter.’
Report and Pictures by Roger Pike
Brixham 22 Lydney 12
Lydney faced another difficult game in Devon visiting League leaders Brixham writes Roger Pike. With the visitors having a tough run of fixtures it would make for another challenging afternoon, but a superb effort saw them just fall short of getting something from the game. Lydney again had a few changes with injury and unavailability, Drew Roberts started at outside half, Ellis Deans-Smith had his debut on the wing and eighteen-year-old Frank Barclay made his 1st team debut having come through the youth set-up as a replacement. Fullback Alex Nelmes made his 100th 1st team appearance.
It did not look good for Lydney when Drew Roberts was injured in the warmup forcing a reshuffle to move Sam Harrison to outside half and Kurt Brown started in the centre who went on to have a superb game putting an excellent defensive performance. With only two replacements left Sam Arnott added himself to the bench. On a heavy pitch it was the visitors who made a good start taking the game to the hosts with some good attacks from Dunn and Large. The league leaders soon settled creating some good attacks however a strong Lydney defence kept them out. From a 5m scrum the hosts did eventually score when Joel Ashworth crossed, Mitch Pinkus added the extras for 7 – 0. A great response from the kick off saw Lydney deep in the 22m area following a great break from Brad Dunn, the forwards had a couple of drives and Jack Knox crossed 7 – 5. The game remained even over the twenty minutes to the break, but the visitors really rattled the hosts and had two great chances to score. Firstly, some forward drives from Hanslow, Frowen and Mullis saw them stopped a metre short and only a knock on stopped a certain score. Back on the attack the impressive Dunn looked dangerous every time he had the ball and another set of forward drives from the hard-working Knox and Hudson saw them again stopped just short. A scuffle on halftime saw a player from each sided carded and Mullis was in the bin, Frank Barclay came on for his debut as front row replacement who went on to put in a solid display. A brief Brixham attack was ended with some superb tackles from Massey, Myers and Hudson for 7 – 5 the halftime score.
Brixham started the second half strongly and scored early on with a Matt Crosscombe try for 12 – 5. Lydney brought on Tom Broady who immediately had a penalty kick opportunity but in the heavy conditions the attempt fell short. From the restart a great break from Alex Nelmes saw a deft offload to Mullis who charged forward passing to Dunn who was tackled 5m short. A forward drive followed and Sam Baker crossed, Broady converted to tie the scores. The hosts attacked and put Lydney under some major pressure, but a super defensive display kept them out and a Frank Barclay turnover won a penalty to clear their lines. However, a loose kick saw Brixham run it back and Jason Watson scored 17 – 12. The visitors then received and unlucky yellow card for Broady and against the 14 the hosts were clinical spinning the ball wide for Ashworth to cross again 22 – 12. The visitors never gave up with Frowen once again putting in another top performance, an interception in their 22m area saw debutant Ellis Deans-Smith go the length of the pitch only to be tackled on the try line and a certain score got away. Despite some good attacks from the visitors, they could not get another score to get the bonus point they deserved as an absolute minimum.
Director of Rugby Sam Arnott commented ‘Really pleased with the effort and attitude today against the league leaders, a superb performance especially as we had two 18-year-olds in our young side against a very experienced team. There are 4 good teams in this league and unfortunately results have not gone our way against any of them, but it’s been fine margins. We had three great chances to score without executing to change the game and is something we need to put right; they were clinical with their chances which proved the difference today. We face Chew Valley in two weeks’ time back at Regentsholme who are scrapping for their life near the bottom of the table, a massive game as we need a win to set up a good end to the season.’
Lydney – Garrett Myers, Sam Baker, Rowan Mullis, Mike Massey, Pat Hanslow, Luke Hudson, Jack Knox, Kyle Frowen, Grady Alford, Drew Roberts, Ellis Dean- Smith, Ben Large©, Sam Harrison, Brad Dunn, Alex Nelmes. Replacements Frank Barclay, Kurt Brown, Tom Broady.
