Shrewsbury - Old Leamingtonians: 17 – 24

Old Leamingtonians reclaim top spot in wMidlands 2.

20-11-2005

Old Leamingtonians re-claimed their position at the top of wMidlands 2 this weekend with an emphatic win over their close rival Shrewsbury.

With Captain Christie Honor unavailable, Fly-half Vicky Stokes lead her team to a great victory, scoring 19 of the 24 points herself.

In the cold conditions, OLs showed they are still making progress every week. Especially on the mental front, Old Leams took a big step forward by keeping their heads up and just getting stuck in the game with determination.

The forwards, the strongest part of OLs team this season, found themselves with 3 players either new or out of position and flanker Chris Lycett was called upon to play scrum-half. It was clear that the pack had not played in this formation before and the normal fluency of the forward-play was missing this week. Frequently, OLs over-committed themselves in the rucks, leaving the backs to do more defending than normal.

The first score came after 7 minutes when the two centres, Kelly McLeod and Charlotte Hewer, picked up on a loose ball. They worked their way past the Shrewsbury defence, finally passing of to Stokes who simply ran through the remaining Shrewsbury defence to ground the ball between the posts.

Shrewsbury did not wait long with their reply and only 5 minutes later they scored their first try of the day when once again the OLs forwards were over-committed in a ruck, leaving too much space out wide.

Stokes’ kicking was excellent and lock Marieke Vink did well to disrupt the Shrewsbury line-out over and over again. It was Stokes again who increased the OLs lead by scoring her second try after a well-worked backs’ move. Starting from an Old Leamingtonians scrum, the ball went out to the middle of the park where Charlotte Hewer and Flanker Claire Penna put in a some good hard hits that allowed Stokes to side-step her way across the line. Converting her second try of the day, OLs were now leading 14-5.

A lapse of concentration from Old Leams saw Shrewsbury score almost straight from the re-start and again a few minutes later, putting them ahead of Old Leamingtonians. But again it was Stokes who stepped up. OLs were awarded a penalty minutes before the end of the first half and Stokes decided to go for the posts. From 22 metres out, she kicked the ball perfectly, bringing the score at half time to 17-17.

In the second half, it was Old Leamingtonians who eventually came out on top by sheer determination. Shrewsbury’s lack of line-out success saw them change their game from a kicking game to a running game, knowing OLs were still prone to putting too many forwards in their rucks.

Even though they were playing in an unfamiliar formation, the Old Leamingtonians scrum was yet again strong as ever with prop Mary Sugrue giving yet another star performance in only her second match for the team.

From another strong OLs scrum, the ball was passed out wide and some great dummy running saw the Shrewsbury defence on the wrong foot, opening a gap for centre Kelly McLeod to sprint through and ground the ball. With 15 minutes to go, Old Leamingtonians were back in the lead.

In last 10 minutes of the match, OLs showed their mental strength and they managed to hang on. Shrewsbury had a chance to equalise the match when they broke out on the wing. Faced with a one-on-one tackle, Old Leams winger Celina Bennett stood firm and saved the match by bringing the Shrewsbury runner down with a crunching tackle. From the sidelines, even the Shrewsbury coach and supporters applauded her effort.

The match lived up to the expectations with exciting rugby from the two top teams in the wMidlands 2 League.

This Sunday, Old Leamingtonians welcome Tewkesbury at The Crofts. Kick-off is at 2pm.

Women interested in playing rugby for Old Leamingtonians are invited to visit the website: www.olrfc.co.uk/ladies