Caldy 31 - Lions 18

On a day where many Leicestershire games had been called off due to flooding, Leicester Lions headed up to Caldy expecting bad weather and looking for a crucial away win.
Much to amazement of all, the weather held out and the pitch was in great condition. Lions looked the brighter of the two teams beginning the first half with Boden claiming the first score through a clean struck penalty.

It took till 21 minutes for Caldy to apply pressure, following a number of penalties against the Lions, the Caldy blindside flanker powered over the line from a driving maul.
Lions responded well and built points every time they entered the Caldy half, all through the boot of Boden. This gave Lions a 5-12 lead with half time approaching. Unfortunately Caldy were not here to lie down and scored on the stroke of half time through sustained forward pressure and hard running from Caldy prop, Lowes. Caldy’s consistent kicker, Vasey added the extras leaving the scores 12 a piece at the half time break.

At the beginning of the second half, as we have seen a number of times before, the home side managed to get the run of the green. A turnover and then some quick hands allowed Caldy winger to run in their third try just 2 minutes in. Lions were now trailing 17-12.

Leicester Lions were not just lying down and responded with another penalty kick through Boden, clawing back the points. The Lions were starting to get frustrated as play by the visitors was good, but small errors were starving them of ball and continuity. This eventually led to a yellow card for Lions Hooker, Oliver Taylor who made an infringement while defending the Lions line.

With Leicester down a man in the pack, Caldy used this advantage and drove over from a lineout after the resulting penalty. Conversion successful and score line 24-15 in Caldy’s favour.

Even with a man down, Lions still demonstrated pressure at scrum time. After a free kick to the Lions and a dominant scrum on the Caldy line, Lions were awarded the penalty. Captain Tuckey opted for the 3 points to bring the score line back to within a converted score leaving it all to play for. 24-18 with 14 minutes to go.
Back to the full 15 men Lions were expected that the game would be pretty evenly matched again. Unfortunately Caldy had other ideas and successfully converted another try, scored by the Caldy fullback.

The last 10 minutes of the game still showed both teams wanted to play for another score. It was Lions who started to play a bit more open running rugby but a score was not to be. As time ran out Lions were left with no points to take home and the final score 31-18. It seemed that discipline and small errors in accuracy when looking to retain the ball cost Lions this week.

Some real positives from the game but there is still things to work on, but there has been a big boost to team confidence with the return of several key players to the squad and the signings of a few others during the week.
Lions are at home, playing host to Preston Grasshoppers. Kick-off 2pm.

By Matt Tuckey