Another Bitter Pill for the Leos 3s

We welcomed back Tweddle of the J variety after a year long absence with injury. In the first half Ripon had the majority of ball, as they showed just a little bit more desire. Leos tackled well across the team and from occasional scraps of ball looked to attack.

Jamie ran well at 10 causing problems for the home side, as did Herring out wide, who was as dangerous as ever narrowly failing to touch down after a wonderful stepping run from deep. Jake our metrosexual, shiny blue bag carrying no 9 cleaned up lots of untidy ball as Ripon disrupted both scrum and lineout. New boy Adam, finally persuaded to play by Macklin, made his debut, under the threat of all the most horrible hospital jobs for the next 5 years! He even got to call Mr Macklin Chris and not Sir or Mr.

Adam did well at hooker and contributed strongly around the park. Cranfield leading by example also tidied up a lot of messy ball and did his best to inspire his troops. Niall and Lovers attempted to resist all comers in midfield but in truth we spent nearly all the 1st half very much on the back foot. From concerted Ripon pressure the home side deservedly took the lead with a well taken try, they were camped on Leos line when a certain consultant surgeon decided to attempt to kick the ball clear rather than passing to a better positioned back. To be fair Chris usually shows a more than useful boot but on this occasion his effort was charged down and the try was scored by Ripon. Conversion missed.

They played a simple but effective game, kicking well for position and then releasing their useful 13 who jinked his way past defenders on occasion. Leos managed not to leak any more tries but did concede a penalty which was slotted to make the half time score 8- 0. The words were for a bit more aggression and composure along with more efforts in defence.

Leos began what was to be an eventful 2nd half much better and started to win some ball and get back into the game. Jamie pulled the strings at 10 consistently getting over the gain line himself, or with good hands inviting his outside backs to run hard and straight. Ripon began to concede more penalties which were kicked for position. Unfortunately from 1 such kick Lovers went for broke forgetting just how wide the pitch was - forcing his kick over the dead ball line. It was the 1st of several errors from an out of sorts centre who did not play well.

The Leos set piece was also now working better and from quicker cleaner lineout ball Niall started to get the ball in his hands as did Ben who again ran hard and straight. At this point the whole tone of the game, and indeed day, changed in an unfortunate incident. Paul Malone went into a collision and went down hurt. As it was clear it was a neck injury the game was stopped and an ambulance called. He was expertly attended by Macklin and a home player who was a paramedic. As the medics looked after Paul the game was moved to the next door pitch with all 30 players clearly a little chastened by seeing a serious injury. Pretty quickly we lost Herring which was a major blow, and were helped out by the home side kindly lending us Cas who went onto the wing. The injuries continued as the Ripon 13 was thrown out of a ruck and landed badly damaging his ankle.

At this point, the ref who was clearly concerned about all the injuries, started to make noises about playing a much shorter 2nd half. This was after some comedy returned to the proceedings, a Leos player who will remain nameless dived over what he thought was the try line to “ score “ only to discover to his horror that he was still shy of the real try line! Some much needed laughter erupted from both sides and the game was restarted with a scrum. From this scrum Jamie scampered over for a well taken try near the posts. Lovers poor performance continued as he missed a simple kick to cries of “ Great Kick“ from the sniggering home team. Leos continued to be playing some good rugby as Metrosexual Man Jake darted well from the base of rucks and our industrious pack made hard yards up the middle. Ripon, possibly tiring a little, continued to infringe, now fairly blatantly, as they gots hands on the ball on the floor to slow it down. With Leos looking like they were about to break through and take the lead the Ref inexplicably ended the game after only 25 mins of the 2nd half. A slightly incredulous visiting team congratulated the home side on their win and wandered off to watch the last 10 mins of the 1st team encounter.

The game was largely played in a good spirit.

On reflection with Grand Final day and the general unavailability of 12 regular 3s players this was a creditable effort against an always awkward and committed opponent. As in recent years there was less than 5 points between the teams.

Finally both sets of players wish Paul Malone well and hope his neck injury is not serious.

Team Gribben, Adam, Macklin, Gopichandran, Goff, Marshall, Cranfield, Ian, Malone, Kapper, Tweddle J, Lovers, Monk, Herring, Clements, A N Other.

Final Score : 5-8 .
Try : Tweddle J .

Lovejoy