Match Report
North one west
December 12th 2009
lymm 12 v wilmslow 8
lymm go 6 points clear
Lymm enjoyed an entire calendar season unbeaten at home with a hard fought win over near neighbours Wilmslow. With Northwich unable to play Lymm now have a 6 point cushion at the top of North 1 West. Despite the records and stats , this win was no cake walk, with the visitors coming as close as any to taking the points.
On a positive note though the Lymm defence, again, held firm and, despite missing players still looked the better team in long parts of the game. Rotation was in force again. Swetman and Fletcher swapped places. Adam Cox and Lee Pickles were unavailable, allowing veterans Broadbent and Millachip the chance to start. Kinsey benched himself.
The youthful visitors started brightly. Capitalising on poor handling in midfield impressive scrum half, Mulchrone, despatched Kennedy for the first score on 4 mins. 0-5. A lacklustre performance from Lymm, with too many handling errors and panicked decisions, threatened a shock defeat.
The dependable boot of Knowles, on 16 and 40 mins gave the hosts some way back. A Wilmslow penalty on 28 made it 6-8 at half time. Oddly , bursts from Tom Hughes had threatened to overwhelm the Wilmslow defence but the pressure failed to turn into points and Lymm seemed to forget this line of attack would be fruitful.
6-8
The fact that the visitors failed to score a point in the second half reflected the solidity of the Lymm defence. Knowles was successful again on 58 and 64 mins, to secure the points. However his most crucial moment of the game came when he gathered the opposing winger from a cross kick to prevent a certain try. Match winning defence, absolutely. Title winning defence, possibly! Knowles is now the league’s highest points scorer and seems to be enjoying his Rugby at this level. Having had more clubs than Tiger Woods in recent seasons he seems settled and has become a real asset to the club. 12-8
Coach Kinsey was happy enough. “We were really tested again for the second time in 3 games. This time it was dogged defence and determination as opposed to flair that got us through” and man of the match Hughes was also impressed with the win.” Its winning games like that, when we don’t function, that wins titles. We are there to be shot at at the moment and we must raise our game to deal with that”.
Lymm travel to New Brighton next with the final game of a long, hard year.
Lymm. 15 Knowles C 14 Williamson , 13 Hughes 12 Swetman, 11 Johnstone ,10 Roberts (Fletcher 50), 9 Griffiths 1 Brown 2 Harrison 3 Broadbent , 4 Millachip ,5 Higginson , 6 Cullinane , 7 Ashall, 8 Sutton
NORTH WEST INTERMEDIATE RUGBY UNION LEAGUE
miller homes division one