Moortown 15 v Leos 13

In what must surely be a rugby record Leos 1st xv WALKED THE 800metres to Moortown on Saturday That must go down in the Guinness book of records!!

It is very difficult to put a full match report together for this game, as Leos dominated territory and possession for over 80% of the game and came away with a 2 point defeat!

The lineout's were dominated by Nick Freear and Tim Fforde and the pack drove Moortown back by 5/10/15 metres where props Ed Connell and Dave Robinson were in inspiring form. The reality is that the scoreboard showed that Moortown had won by 15-13 and this is what people will remember and is reflected in the record books. Leos should have won by a clear 30 points but Moortowns strength over the years is that they work hard and on Saturday starved of possession they defended and tackled like Trojans.

Matt Freear opened the scoring for Leos after 3 minutes with a well judged penalty from 30 metres out. On 20 minutes following relentless Leos pressure the ball was spread wide across the backs for winger James Lund to score in the corner.Moortown 0 Leos 8.

Moortown reduced the lead when against the run of play the ball was intercepted by their number 9 who scampered the 30 minutes to the line Moortown 5 Leos 8
On 37 minutes the scores were level when in the first excursion into the Leos half the ref judged an offside at the ruck for the number 12 to add a penalty to make the half time score 8-8

The second half was a replica of the first with Leos dominating but Moortowns defence was superb and once more on 67 minutes against the run of play with Leos attacking, the ball was dropped and kicked through by moortown with the centre scoring under the posts and converting his own try.Moortown 15 Leos 8

Dave Barden was substituted by Jono Richards on 65 minutes and Leos continued the barrage of attacks but Moortowns defence was incredible, but it finally broke on 78 minutes when the forwards released the ball to wing James Lunn who scored his second try of the game out wide.
Matt Freear conversation went wide to give a final score of Moortown 15 Leos 13.

Leos were strong all round the park but were not clinical in being able to convert this into points On the other hand you have to give Moortown enormous credit for some heroic defence.
On another day it would have been a clear cut Leos victory but sometimes it is not to be and Saturday was one of those days.

There were many strong Leos performances around the pitch most notably from props Ed Connell and Dave Robinson with James Lunn on the wing scoring two well taken tries. However the Man of the match award for the second week running went to second row Tim Fforde who dominated the lineout and was strong and supportive across the park.

Leos Scorers:
Tries James Lunn x2
Penalty Matt Freear

Leos team
Bindloss,Lunn,Knibbs,Lui,Baker,MattFreear,Wood,Connell,McIntosh,Robinson,Nick Freear,Fforde,Burdon,Barden,Lane,Litherland,Richards,Coutts-Tucker