Rampant Leo’s Conquer The House of York

And all the clouds that lowered upon our team in the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths; our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarms changed to merry meetings, our dreadful marches to delightful measures.

A glorious sunny day welcomed Leo’s 4th XV, augmented once again by the thirds to take on a similarly manned home team for an afternoon’s running rugby in the spring sunshine. Despite losing the bald Bishop to a warming up injury Leo’s still had four on the bench as the game commenced with JP, The Reception King, Ashton collecting the kick off and setting up the visiting sides first forays into the York territory. The forwards worked hard in retaining and recycling but there was perhaps a little too much exuberance from the pacy backs early on and pressure was not converted into points as opportunities were squandered in the face of strong midfield defence. Thommo, James P and Stuey ran in hard with good clearing out from Scotty and Jimmy to present quick clean ball for Jamie and Blakey to utilise. Lovejoy bludgeoned and Senor Ninguno added guile to the back line. Eventually the pressure told and an excellent break from Andrew Bruce was supported by the speed and trickery of young Jack who was in turn surprised by the galloping support of Scotty who was on hand to finish off the move and add his own extras.
Senor Ninguno scored two more tries before the break as the home side were reduced to a crumb of comfort with a three pointer midway through the half as they realised that the visiting defence was in imperious form. Water was taken on board and a call for calmer less giddy play was made by the exhausted forwards. The second half battle ensued with no quarter asked or given as the packs slugged it out in a feisty but fair battle for possession. York were more on the front foot but good defence and strong counter rucking kept them at bay before their superior fitness of the Leo’s backs told. An inspirational piece of play from Jamie with a chip, catch and scamper opened up the last quarter floodgates and allowed Hooker Jimmy to add the first of a couple of conversions as the forwards continued to add twinkle toed extras. Big Steve was ruled to have been held up after crashing over from a foot as the Leo’s pack found the upper hand in the scrimmaging. The Herring floated round the home defence for Leo’s fifth try before Billy Adams scored his first Leo’s try of the decade to round off a comprehensive but hard fought victory, played out in a very sporting manner.