Brave Leos out gunned at Moortown

New Skipper Neil had assembled 16 players to take on local rivals Moortown across at their ever improving club. The refurbishment work at Moortown is moving on apace, and the club is looking good these days.

On the field the game began at a furious lick. Initially Leos competed well up front winning enough ball to allow the Leos backs a chance to run. From one phase of play Jo was set free at 12 , he made a lovely outside break and in a simple draw and give put a support runner, a fellow native of The Isle of Man ,Josh in for a well crafted try. Jo is quick, and although slight of frame is a tough nugget as he played well at both 12 and later in the game at 10 when your humble scribe wanted both him to get his hands on the ball more, and frankly a rest !!

Moortown are a very well organised team with talented players notably at 8 and 10 and Olly at 15. . Their quick and powerful 8 broke from scrums making huge yardage and the Town 10 ran the backs , putting people in gaps with very good offloads , some out of the back of the hand. At first Leos tackled well and managed to just about hold the line but wave after wave of attack and tired legs led to Town scoring a few tries in quick succession. This was not down to lack of effort in defence with Rob, Soft Dave, Jo, Brad, Josh Captain Neil and Carl, George, even Lovers when he could hammer someone at close quarters ! putting in some big hits. It was more that Town were a bit fitter than Leos and better organised. If truth be told they were also a better team. It was also clear they were up for it and possibly wanted the win a little more.

Leos tried really hard, at scrum time it was fairly even with Town maybe having a slight edge, The lineout was good for Leos with Jamie Scott at accurate as ever with his arrows. Rob at 9 was under constant pressure from the Town back row who lived either side of the offside line and were up very quickly shutting down space. This led to the Leos 10 dropping a couple of regulation passes which simply added to the pressure the visitors were under from the resulting scrums. It was very hard to win enough quick clean ball to get the Leos outside backs involved but when new boy Brad did get the pill he made good ground showing pace and quick feet.

Halftime arrived with Town about 22 /5 up and the chat from Captain Neil was for more effort and cohesion. A rather wound up humble scribe could see that we were in for a hiding if we did not make our tackles and in impassioned tones demanded that we all play with heart and spirit for the pride of being the Leos 3s in what is always a fiercely contested local derby.

The second stanza was hard work. Carl who had carried the ball very well as usual had to depart with a nasty head knock. Town got the upper hand early and ran in try after try as tackles were missed and their superior skill sets took their toll. Leos never gave up and the spirit was solid throughout but it is hard when all you are doing is repelling boarders with no respite, and still conceding tries.

As the game wore on it was clear that the better team was showing its ability in attack. What was also clear was the fancy dan Town 10 had plenty to say in taking the mickey out of the team his lot were beating. He was not so keen on tackling when anyone large ran down his chanel ! Ah the arrogance of youth. That said he is a good rugby player but irritating to play against with all the chat that showed a real lack of class. But bless him what can you expect from one of the inter related 12 toed webbed feet brigade ? He probably does not know any better and was clearly not the sharpest tool in the box ,intelligence wise. Who needs to chelp or gloat when you are 50 points up ? Him clearly.

As Leos tired Town deservedly crossed the 50 point marker and although Leos continued to make efforts in defence in truth this was a good old fashioned hammering by a far superior team, fair play to Moortown they are a good outfit and we can see why they are unbeaten this season.

The final score was Moortown 57 Leos 5.

It was little consolation that we managed not to be nilled and the mood in the dressing room was that of a team that know it has been well beaten.

Looking on the bright side the game was played in fairly good spirits , not always the case against Moortown, and we all shook hands afterwards with congratulations and smiles being the order of the day. We had a beer with the home side and mulled over the game in a friendly manner and then returned home to Leos where our 1s had also been beaten by Moortown.

We waited in anticipation of the Kiwi / Frogs game and what a show of quality rugby that was to be ?

So the Leos 3s move on to next week where we hope for better as the team learns to gel and hopefully a few missing players return to colours.

Membership Subscriptions are now due, setting up a Direct Debit for £ 10 a month is all that is required, easy , and a small price to pay to be a Leo.

Note your humble scribe is now also the Membership Secretary, so please do not make me chase you all for money , as it is not nice to be gently pursued by 19 stone of Lovejoy !! and the club needs the income too.