‘Severnsiders woes continue.’

The Regional 1 South West division is extremely close, even though both sides were mid table going into the game, both are not mathematically safe from relegation writes Roger Pike. A win was important for either side to have momentum for the final matches and a possible fifth place finish. The game proved to be a close contest however the Cornish All Blacks got the lead early on and with the Severnsiders numerous missed opportunities the visitors ran out deserved winners giving a solid display. The Severnsiders finally had a stronger squad to pick from with players returning, Ryan Mullis was back at prop with Phil Williams in the second row. The backrow of Scriven, Hudson and McClean would offer some real pace. Out in the backs Brad Branes returned from Bristol duties at outside half, Hamlin and Sleeman were at centre with flying wingers Hamid and Cross both selected. A strong looking bench contained Costner Lane, Jordan Fowke and the evergreen Sam Arnott.

The visitors were out of the blocks dominating the opening encounters in the Lydney half. A good move saw centre Brandon Rowley cross, with Dan Pearce converting the visitors were seven points up after just 5 minutes. The hosts did finally respond with a good passage of play, a break from Sami Hamid beat numerous defenders and a deft offload to Henry Sleeman opened their account. With Brad Barnes kicking the conversion from wide out the scores were levelled. The Severnsiders then created a good chance following a strong run from the impressive Joe McClean but failed to convert a good scoring opportunity. The game became end to end and the visitors got a penalty on the 22m which Pearce knocked over for 7 – 10. Another great break by Sami Hamid who Launceston could just not handle all afternoon was finally stopped with a high tackle. Again, the hosts failed to add any points while in the red zone for a long period. Finally a superb backs move saw the best try of the game when full back Alex Nelmes broke through offloading to winger Mike Cross running deep into the 22m giving the return pass back for Nelmes to score and the hosts had the lead at 12 – 10. The visitors responded strongly using their big pack putting the Severnsiders under real pressure in their 22m area. Lydney were conceding numerous penalties which finally told when scrum half Tom Broady got a yellow card. Kicking to the corner the forwards drove the lineout forward, but another infringement saw the official give a penalty try for 12 – 17. The hosts conceded further penalties and Launceston scored again through James Tucker, Pearce added the extras to extend the lead 12 – 24. With halftime approaching Lydney mounted an attack which sees the ball spun wide for winger Cross to outpace the defence and touch down out wide. Barnes added the extras for halftime score of 19 -24.

The second half saw Lydney dominating the play but could not make the territory count and were just not clinical with their opportunities. A penalty finally sees them opt to kick and Barnes reduced the deficit to 22 – 24 for a tense final 20 minutes. With Mars Slee suffering a serious injury the hosts emptied their bench trying to get the vital score. The visitors with a rare excursion to the Lydney half won a penalty and opted to kick, Pearce again on target moved the score to 22 – 27. The hosts were now frantic for a try score, with some good forward drives a break sees a touchdown but the player was deemed to have been tackled and the official awarded a penalty to the visitors. Despite some great efforts from Spencer, McClean, Hamid and Cross the hosts failed to add to their score, the game ended 22 – 27 and a frustrating day for the Severnsiders.

Director of Rugby Sam Arnott commented ‘Another disappointing day especially at home in front of a big crowd. We should have been out of sight by halftime but spurned at least four easy opportunities to finish. It was a pressure game for both sides but our execution was poor when in the scoring zone. We were still ok at halftime but lost our game plan in the second period giving away far too many penalties which finally proved our downfall. We have two tough games to finish the season starting with a trip down to Plymouth to play Devonport Services next Saturday and ending at home to champions Cambourne, so will be challenging the team to get good points to end our season in style.