The Lions made it back to back wins with a dominant display against fellow strugglers Leeds Tykes. The Lions left it late but a brilliant 75th minute try by debutant Brad McKenna sealed a much deserved win in which the Lions out scored their hosts four tries to one.

Playing up the slope and against a strong breeze, the Lions failed to exit when a Fin Ogden box kick went straight in to touch, and Leeds’ first attacking set led to a penalty which Seremaia Bai Turagabeci slotted for an early 3-0 lead.

For the next 15 minutes the Lions were camped in the Leeds 22m courtesy of repeated infringements by the Tykes. A number of scoring opportunities came and went though due to some Lions inaccuracy.

When the hosts finally exited, courtesy of the ball being held up over the line, a turnover in midfield allowed Turagabeci to kick his second penalty from long range (6-0).

The home side then scored the opening try of the afternoon when the impressive Toby Williams bust through the Lions defence on half way. The Tykes players flooded through in support and Ewan Laughton was on hand to finish under the posts. Turagabeci converted before adding another penalty to give the Tykes a commanding 16-0 advantage.

The Lions responded well though, in typical resilient fashion, and finally scored just before the break after more concerted pressure in Leeds’ 22 led to Ollie Crane crashing over from close range.

Half time 16-5

Unbelievably the home side had conceded 14 first half penalties but had not received a yellow card, despite a number of infringements in their red zone, and a number of warnings.

The Lions came out firing in the second period and two yellow cards for Leeds (finally!) allowed the visitors to exert control. After more pressure in the Leeds 22 led to a midfield penalty the Lions decided to tap, and after an initial carry by Arthur Allen, man of the match Crane muscled over from close range for his seconde. Luke Bouchier’s conversion narrowed the deficit to just 4 points (16-12).

Despite a fourth Turagabeci penalty, the Lions were in complete control of the contest, but injuries to both wingers Jake Sterland and Joey Patrick caused some disruption and head coach Gareth Collins was forced in to a backline reshuffle. Ahren Crowley came on at inside centre, pushing Theo Mannion to full back and George Pearson to the wing, and Brad McKenna came on to the wing for his debut. And what a debut it was.

The electric winger, who has been on loan at Old Northamptonians, combined with fellow debutant Cam Scott to finish off the big centres line break. Bouchier converted to draw level (19-19).

It did appear that the game might be destined to end this way until the Lions backs moved the ball wide and McKenna showed devastating pace to outstrip all of the Tykes’ cover defence to score the match winner with a sensational second try.

FT 19-24

Head coach Gareth Collins commented: ‘’I am really proud of our performance today. We were dominant but could have easily got frustrated by many factors - our own inaccuracy, the lack of yellow cards in the first half etc - but we showed great resilience. To win away from home in this league is always hard and the conditions today made that even harder. We were desperate to back up last weeks’ win so are delighted to have done that. We now focus on two more huge games after the break and look to keep this momentum going’’