Lydney rampant in huge win
Report and Pictures by Roger Pike
Lydney 71 Crediton 9
A large crowd turned out at Regentsholme to see Lydney put in a totally dominant performance against a team just one place below them in the league. This was a must win game for Lydney to continue with their promotion push and Severnsiders did not disappoint. The Severnsiders started much the brighter recapturing the kick off, a good break followed from Ryan Watling who broke from a ruck on half away powering through the Crediton tackles to open the scoring after just two minutes, Tony Wicks knocked over the conversion to give the hosts a 7 – 0 lead. Crediton did respond with some early pressure and a resulting penalty brought the score back to 7 – 3. However this was a day when the Severnsiders really gelled as a team, a good team move saw full back Tony Wicks score for 12 – 3. This score was soon followed by a break from the strong running centre Joe McClean to score again converted by Wicks at 19 – 3. The away side did try to respond and another penalty brought the score to 19 – 6. This only spurned on the Severnsiders and a quick brace of try’s from Tai Lakabuka saw the score move to 33 – 6 and the hosts were out of sight. Crediton did pull back 3 points with another penalty right on half time for 33 – 9.
Lydney immediately started the second half strongly and a break from Joe McClean who the away team could just not handle had a superb game in attack and defence passed to substitute big back rower John Barker to power over for 40 – 9. Lydney were now totally dominate and determined not to give the visitors anything, any possession the away side had was quickly turned over by the impressive back row of Kurt and Harry Brown. Further try’s soon followed from outside half Olly Locke and a good brace of try’s from hooker Rob White to keep the scoreboard moving and 57 – 9 after just 65 minutes. Good work from James Pugh saw captain Dave Bennet next to cross the whitewash; a good touchline conversion followed from Wicks moved the score to 64 – 9. With full time approaching Kurt Brown added the final score which was converted for 71 – 9 and a very impressive performance from the 18 player squad.
Coach Lee Fortey commented ‘really delighted, that’s 3 wins on the spin, we have been playing well and I have been saying for a while now that we had a big score coming. We have been improving every game, we have most players fit and good competition for places, today the whole squad gelled and stuck to our game plan. We still have some aspects to work on and have some big games coming up in December. We travel to Devonport next and then have two home games against Weston and Thornbury so I will be challenging the team to get us in promotion positions for the Xmas break.’
A great weekend for Lydney rugby continued with the Colts team beating Avonmouth away 0 – 28 and the young United team beating Old Centurions 18 – 17.