Huddersfield Match Report

The match was a close affair throughout but the Lions struggled to get consistency and Huddersfield held the Lions out to take the win.

The rain finally stopped during the warmup allowing both teams to play some expansive rugby. Lions were looking strong in the first 5 minutes but it was the visitors who struck first with a try driven over from a series of lineout drives. The conversion was missed.

The game then seemed to go rather flat with neither team looking like scoring and both taking points from the others mistakes through a number of penalties. Huddersfield added to their lead with two penalty kicks curtesy of the boot of Joel Hinchcliffe, while Lions clawed back at the score line with Rory Lynn converting two. A long range attempt at goal by Lynn was missed on the stroke of half-time leaving the score 6-11 in the visitors favour.

The stern words said at half-time in the Lions changing room seemed to change very little but the Lions did manage to build the score line up by forcing penalties out of Huddersfield, especially at scrum time. Two successful penalty kicks gave the Lions the lead for a short time going into the last quarter at 12-11.

Frustration in the Lions camp was starting to kick in as the game remained stagnant leading to penalties and turnovers by the determined Huddersfield team. The visitor took the lead once more through another penalty kick on 65 minutes.

Lions were still hopeful to take the win and continued to play, sometimes overcomplicating matters, and looking to speed the game up. Unfortunately this worked against the Lions when Huddersfield were awarded a penalty in their own half, 3 minutes from time. The quick thinking backs took a quick tap and darted around the napping home team. A simple off load to the supporting Ben Mitchell allowed him to score in the corner. Luckily for the Lions the conversion was missed and they were looking down the barrel of a 7 point deficit.

In the dying minutes of the game Lions attacked the Huddersfield line but it was not to be. As the ball was held up over the visitor’s line the final whistle blew awarding an extremely grateful Huddersfield side the 4 point win. Lions were left disappointed with the only consolation being a losing bonus point.

Leicester Lions will need to put this bump behind them and come out fighting next week as they travel to local rivals Birmingham Solihull.

Report by Matt Tuckey