Match Report
North one west
Saturday 20th february 2010
aspatria 21 v lymm 37
lymm 4 points clear
Lymm regained their 4 point cushion at the top of North 1 West after 2nd placed Northwich lost to Vale of Lune. With 16 points to play for none of the chasing pack can afford to lose ground in the final stages of the season.
The hosts are in dire relegation trouble but are a tough nut to crack at home. As in previous games this season they were only 2 points adrift at half time and only a second half ,20 minute devastating display of attacking finishing gave Lymm the points.
Lymm recalled influential 10, Andy Roberts and Tom Hughes moved to his preferred 13. Williamson started on the wing and Butler benched. Danny Bates was chosen at tight head allowing warhorse Broadbent a rest. Teen sensation Mullarkey benched now the Lymm HS commitments had finished for the season.
With both sides struggling with the referee’s interpretation of the break down penalties abounded in the first exchanges. A Knowles penalty on 3 was cancelled out by Aspatria on 14. The same scenario led to a 6-6 after 24. When Lymm realise they have pace to burn and are patient enough to use it they are a real force. For the first time they reached 4th phase on 26 mins and it created enough space for Swetman to go over the try line. Roberts was the pivot latching onto 3 passes in the same move to release Hughes who unselfishly found the big 12, Knowles missed the conversion. The Aspatria 10 took a half chance and notched a decent drop goal and half time Lymm led 11-9.
11-9
The hosts seemed to be tiring and the half time talk was about phase build up and patience. The message got through. A 30 metre Dave Williamson run set up Jack Johnstone who had the presence of mind to offload to Hughes who went over. Knowles notched the conversion. 18-9.
10 mins later Hughes released Johnstone who flew over under the posts and then 3 minutes later was released by Knowles and scored in the corner. 30-9. 3 minutes later another Knowles surge, found Roberts and Ian Cullinane scored to make it 37-9 with Knowles succeeding with the extras.
At this point things looked bleak for the hosts. Any score was possible. However a ludicrous sin bin for Cullinane led to an Aspatria try, the impressive 7 pirouetting through non existent defence and on 78 minutes another sin bin, Swetman, led to a 2nd try for the hosts. 37-21
Kinsey wasn’t overly impressed. “complacency against any team will lead to scores being leaked. Nothing less than a quality aggressive defence next week against Vale of Lune will be acceptable.”
2 try hero Johnstone mirrored the thought “it was an important win but we need to step it up for next weeks huge match against Vale. We need to be more clinical and tighten the defence quickly”.
DOR Boundy feels the Vale game is huge. “ With the chasing pack playing each other we have a real chance to take a big step towards securing promotion. Vale, however, have spent some money in reinforcing their side and have won their last 5 or 6 so this will be tough”
Boundy was able to announce the deadline day signings of 2 of the club’s hottest prospects. 18 year olds Andy Davies and Jordan Widdrington have both signed to play senior rugby. “ in a league full of Romanians ,Aussies ,New Zealanders ,Tongans and the like it shows the great structure we have in place at Lymm where we can access some of the best players at their age group in the country, Andy has England experience and joins us from Sale Jets while Jordan has played regional and county level. They are both massive additions to the 1st team squad.
Credit to Andy Leach, the Chairman of the Mini & Junior sections and the various coaches at the club who continue this conveyor belt of talent. Special mention though to Noel Wright ,the colts coach who has been central to these lads being at the club”
Lymm. 15 Knowles 14 J Johnstone (Butler), 13 Hughes ,12 Swetman ,11 Williamson ,10 Roberts ,9 Stringer 1 ,Brown( Miksys) ,2 Harrison ,3 Bates ,4 Darbyshire (Mullarkey),5 Pickles ,6 Higginson ,7 Cullinane 8 Sutton .
NORTH WEST INTERMEDIATE RUGBY UNION LEAGUE
Miller Homes - Division One
Lymm 2nd XV 13 – Wigan 2nd XV 12
Lymm Captain Andy Norcott was forced to make changes to his team from the previous week. Hooker Nick Girdlestone was unavailable due to the Mothercare half term sale but was ably replaced by Ryan Doyle. A number of senior colts were also given an outing.
Lymm opened the scoring with a Sean Wright penalty after 10 minutes of play. He also converted a John McPartland try after 20 minutes. Wigan were always in the game and by half-time had replied with 2 penalties.
HT Lymm 10-Wigan 6
Wigan kicked a further penalty within a minute of the restart and with the referee in ‘full blown’ whistle mode against the home side, Lymm were on the back foot for most of the half. A solid defence kept their line intact but with 2 minutes remaining, the visitors converted an easy penalty to take the lead.
So, as the game went into injury time, Lymm made one final effort and took the game into the visitors half. Then to their amazement they were awarded a penalty. Sean Wright coped well with the pressure kick, stroking the ball between the posts, for Lymm to secure a close victory.
Wigan were also mystified by some of the refereeing decisions and what could have been a most entertaining game was ruined for both teams and spectators.
With one game in hand, Lymm are lying in 3rd place in the league and still promotion contenders.
Team: 1) John Grant; 2) Ryan Doyle; 3) Jordan Widdrington; 4) Jez Ure; 5) Phil Griffiths; 6) John McPartland; 7) Andy Williamson; 8) Simon Harrison; 9) Tom Wood; 10) Sean Wright; 11) Andy Richardson; 12) Dave Roberts; 13) Adam Fergusson; 14) Ben Hinton; 15) Luke Emmitt; Subs: 16) Andy Norcott (C); 17) Sean Gillespie; 18) Giles Dugdale