For the first time this season Leicester Lions found themselves playing at home against another tricky opposition in Luctonians. Lions made a few changes from previous weeks, but a notable one being the absence of Club Captain, Matt Tuckey. The honour of captain for the day was passed to scrum half Adam Shaw – ‘Toad’.
Lions started the stronger of the two teams, with a very dominant scrum resulting in a penalty and allowing Will Bishop to opening the scoring for the home team, 3-0. After returning the kick off with a well place touch finder from Jono Williams, Lions took play up into the Luctonians half and forcing yet another scrummaging penalty. Will Bishop converting for a 6-0 lead.
However silly play from MOM Joe Collingham resulted in a yellow card for foul play, this seemed to spark a serious of yellow cards throughout the game, with a Luctonian player 2 minutes later also finding himself in the sin bin.
After another dominant scrum on the 20 minute mark, Will Bishop floated a pass into the outside channels and released the back line, great link up play from Nick Taylor and Sam Benjamin found the Lunctonian defence wanting, however they managed to scramble well but as result lazy runners resulted in another penalty. Bishop did the honours extending the home sides lead to 9 points.
After a solid period of dominance by the Lions, Luctonians struggled to clear their lines and Lions forced the knock on. The resulting scrum rewarded the home side with another penalty, however amongst confusion, mainly accents, the referee signalled for a kick at goal when captain for the day Shaw signalled for a scrum. Bishop slotted over to extend the Lions lead to 12 points.
A rare bit of territory and possession for Luctonians resulted in them forcing a serious of penalties allowing them to relieve pressure and find themselves with a line out 5 meters out and 1 minutes left on the clock before half time. Unfortunately the well organised maul allowed Luctonians to touch down for the first try of the match. The conversion was missed.
HT 12-5
The away side started the second half as they ended the first with a real determination and focus to come away with a win and in doing so they scored again, this time adding the conversion, taking the score to 12-12
However the Lions regrouped and came out with a real determination to stamp their authority on the match and take control, in doing so this saw a Luctonian player sent to the sin bin for foul play, allowing Bishop to aid a further 3 points, 15-12.
Again ill-discipline seemed to let the away side down, when again another player was sent to the sin bin for more foul play. This allowed the home side to take a commanding position on the game. Luctonians again failed to clear their lines and in doing so knocked on, the result a 5 meter scrum which inevitably was only going to have one outcome. The Lions forwards were rampant again and the referee was left with no other decision than to award a penalty try. Bishop converted extending the home sides lead to 22-12.
The game lacked the free flowing rugby that was promised pre match, and on the hour mark another Luctonian player found themselves in the sin bin for violent conduct. Lions cranked up the pressure, and again found themselves 5 meters out with a scrum. However the scrum on this occasion failed to show dominance, which caused the ball to squirt out the side and allow a Luctonian player to fly hack clear, but in doing so the ball somehow found its way into the hands of Mark Byrom allowing him to touch down. Bishop added the conversion, stretching the Lions lead to 29-12.
5 minutes Byrom was sin binned because the excitement was all too much for him and he needed a rest, however the away side failed to capitalise, but instead found another player in the sin bin for again violent conduct, bringing their total for the day to 5. Lions knew that they needed to capitalise on their man advantage and a great catch and drive from a lineout saw Will Roach go over for the home sides 3rd try, the conversion missed, 34-12.
Unfortunately Lions failed to grab that all important bonus point victory, but remain unbeaten this season. Next week sees a touch away fixture at Sandal.
Report by Mark Byrom.