Lions roaring as bonus point win sends them up to second
RUGBY Lions went second in Midlands One West with a 33-15 win over another newly-promoted side Melbourne at Webb Ellis Road.
Louis Addleton, Adam Attenborough, Stuart Lee, Jack Brenchley and Jonny Ure ensured Dave Addleton’s side clinched a bonus-point win in their opening home match of the season.
The hosts started brightly and forced the visitors to do the majority of the defending.
This pressure finally delivered the try that their dominance deserved when Addleton got on the back of a driving lineout for his first score for the club, which Dave Weston upgraded.
Lions’ Jonny Ure was then sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle after which the visitors quickly took advantage of their extra man as Chris Stark collected a deft chip to touch down in the corner.
But Addleton’s team soon extended their lead with another converted try when winger Attenborough found space to go over in the corner after a neat passing move.
Euan Holden reduced the visitors’ deficit with a penalty before a loose Lions clearance allowed Tom Howard to go over unchallenged for a try which Holden upgraded to give Melbourne a narrow advantage.
Rugby retook the lead just before the interval when Lee capitalised on a loose ball to score their third converted try after more good interplay between the backs.
The second half became increasingly scrappy, but Lions secured the bonus point when Sam Herrington broke and fed Brenchley whose touchdown gave the home side a two-score advantage.
Ure then added a fifth and final try for the hosts when he intercepted a loose pass on the Melbourne 22 and dotted down under the posts, to leave Weston with a simple conversion.
Lions, who are neck-andneck with table-toppers Dudley Kingswinford on ten points after two matches, host Moseley Oak on Saturday. BROADSTREET scored 13 unanswered second half points, but still slipped to a disappointing 20-16 National Two South defeat at the hands of Bury St Edmunds.
Full back Dale Glover crossed for a try, while Lee Chapman’s trusty left boot added eight points to his first-half penalty, but it was very much a case of too little, too late.
David Coutts and Dwayn Corcoran scored first half tries for the visitors – who a week previously had suffered a suffered a heavy home defeat at the hands of Tonbridge – while excellent fly-half Liam McBride kicked ten points.
Frustrated Street head coach Paul Hurst acknowledged afterwards that his team had paid the price for a lethargic opening 40 minutes.
“We didn’t come out at all in the first half – Bury St Edmunds played with a simple game plan and we didn’t manage to match them,” he said.
“After a few words at halftime we were all over them in the second half, and actually produced what we’d practised, but we’d left ourselves too much to do and we made errors chasing the game.
“Bury had done their homework, identified where we might be a bit lacking and approached the game really well to exploit that.”
After Chapman was wide with an early penalty attempt, visiting prop Coutts crashed over from close range for a score which McBride upgraded.
And after the two No.10s had exchanged penalties, Corcoran’s touchdown plus McBride’s conversion and a second penalty gave the visitors a 17-point interval advantage.
Chapman reduced that by six within five minutes of the restart, but despite pressing hard, the hosts were kept scoreless for the next 27 minutes until Glover finally found a way to the line for a try which his fly-half improved.
But that was as good as it got for Street, who claimed only a consolatory losing bonus point ahead of this week’s trip to Canterbury.
“We’ve got to identify why it took us so long to get into the game this week, and put it right on Saturday,” Hurst said.
“We’ve got the talent to play some good rugby as we showed in the second half and last season.”