Wet, Wild and Little bit Rusty

Anticipation was in the air, a squad that looked thin to the bone on Wednesday evening was up to a throbbing 17 as the players arrived at Crag lane for the first meaningful action of the 2016/17 season. Unfortunately the were a few who though this was still pre season and turning up was voluntary, with 14 men ready to do there best in Wet Wet Wet conditions moral was boosted as the ever punctual Cadge was joined by the Dark Lord himself who had hoped to be playing cricket but was prepared to exchange the whites for the oldest shorts in the club and put in a 80 minute effort to make sure we started the game with 15.

The game started well with Carl collecting the kick off and making good head way up field until as would be the theme of the day the ball was spilt in the wet conditions. It was a day the front row would be getting to know each other personally given the refs love of the whistle and the handling conditions. Leos opened the scoring after a series of attempts at 5 metre lineout drives only for Farmer Jim's GPS not to be firing on all cylinders, Carl took matters into his own hands and took a quick tap to crash over for the opening score of the 2s Season.

The game continued to be played at good pace and despite the conditions the occasional period of flowing play was allowed only for it to be punctuated by a handling error or a peep of the whistle from the Ref as everyone adjusted to the new rule interpretations. Leos did score again a turnover secured the experience of Gabes showed as he chipped over the flat defence and with Bindloss confusing both the cover defence and himself in pursuit of the ball new father Will Levitt flopped on the ball to score.

10 - 0 at half time represented a solind opening half with the odd moment of brilliance (Gabes reverse pass out of the scrum) and plenty of moments of average there was certainly plenty to work on in the 2nd half.

The 2nd half never really got going as both teams began to get frustrated with the constant stop start nature of the game and the sound of the whistle with some interesting calls on forward passes and at the ruck halting play just as both teams looked to be gaining momentum. This frustration inevitably lead to a flash point which resulted in the Morley No.8 leaving the field.

Despite the numerical advantage Leos struggled to score again as Tom Bindloss was determined to kick the ball out on the full or run away from his support. Leos did get the last score with the final play as Will Levitt picked from the base of the scrum half tackled and support calling for the ball the Morley tackler decided to stop tackling and let Will go to show a turn of pace not seen from a pillow in a long time to score under posts for a converted try.

A 17-0 victory given the conditions was a good outcome although plenty more to come in terms of performance and probably availability as well!