Leos 3s come 2nd yet again

Leos 3s come 2nd

Leos welcomed local rivals Yarnbury 3s to the crag for what is always a hard fought game.

With Cadgey away entertaining visitors and Captain Cranners off games with a nasty ear infection, Lovers took charge for the day.

Yarnbury are always a tough side to beat and today would prove no exception.

Macklin arrived fresh from Hong Kong complete with the associated jet lag.

In the warm up there was a distinct lack of feeling and your scribe was a touch concerned.

The game began with Yarnbury on the front foot, they drove hard up front and Leos seemed off the pace across the team. The visitors were quicker to the breakdown and whenever Leos tried to go wide we got turned over due to a lack of support.

This was a little surprising with both Liam, and the returning new father Fishy, in our back row.

Defensively Leos were just about holding the hard running backs at bay but Liam decided to fly up out of the line and as he missed his tackle they were in behind the home defence.

Your scribe was also guilty of missing his man and the strong running 12 crashed through gaining good ground. Hairy could read the situation and began to bark at his pack to work harder.

This Yarnbury pressure led to a couple of deserved tries being scored.

Leos finally woke up as some of the senior players took matters into their own hands. Reedy cleaned up a lot of messy ball and boshed it up well. Niall linked well with Paul Horsey on the wing and Paul in his first game of rugby for a good 10 years ran hard and passed with intelligence. Niall also put in a couple of booming clearance kicks which relieved the pressure.
Ben Clemenst also ran hard and straight and got under the skin of the oppo, he is a tough as teak player who nearly always crosses the gainline.

Yarnbury kept coming with their aggressive forwards taking no prisoners and Leos were starved of any kind of ball.

A frustrated and out of sorts Jason also took the odd late hit and started to get grumpy. Jack Haire did however play very well making last ditch tackles on much bigger lads. He also ran cleverly showing pace and quick feet. His hands were those of a skilled no 9 and he kicked well clearing our lines when required.

The home pack came to the party with Stevo to the fore supported by the rampaging Liam and Pinder who was also now carrying with feeling. Pick and go saw us head deep into oppo country and finally Stevo sold a wonderful dummy to ghost in for the try. Con was popped over and we at last competing.

However in the backs Leos were not getting much quick ball and often we were on the back foot. This meant a certain nameless centre had to bosh it up with he did with relish despite the plethora of swinging arms that came his way.

The half time chat was of a need for more effort across the entire team. Some new lads came on with Telfer at 15 showing good skills and Aussie jinking well at 13.

Jack went to 9 and again shone in more familiar surroundings.

Yarnbury fought the harder for every breakdown and more pressure and the odd missed tackle saw them score a few more deserved tries.

Leos did not wilt but Jason struggled to get them moving and as legs tired the writing was on the wall. Leos tried hard with Jack continuing to play very well, your scribe went to 10 as Jason rested his shoulder.

The scrums were uncontested but the line out was a battle royal with Pinder leaping well winning good ball. Fishy got a round the park a bit more as did Capel but Leos could not break through, and with the Yarnbury 10, another Jason, controlling the game with accurate use of the boot, the home side could not score again.

A frustrated temporary nameless Captain sought to cross the gainline and get us going forward but in truth Yarnbury were the better team by some distance.

The game ended in Fisticuffs as frustrations boiled over with Hairy throwing a few haymakers, in defence of his son.

Our superb ref Foz handled it all with admirable maturity and blew up for the end of the game.

We shook hands on a final score of Yarnbury 24 to Leos 7.

Yarnbury were the better side and deserved their away win, let us hope we can return the “ compliment “ later in the season.

So our tough season continues, we hope to have the likes of Cadgey, Herring, Hill, Edgar and a few others back soon to bolster not only our ranks but also our morale.

We retired to watch our 1s lose a spirited contest and also hear of a whitewash v Yarnbury from 1st to 4s inclusive.

So not a great day at the office for Leos but hey ho there is always next week !!

A request, if you are not injured please make every effort to make yourselves available in the coming weeks as we need to start winning the odd game, personally a slightly grumpy scribe has had quite enough of losing.

Lovejoy.