The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Lacklustre Lions still searching for their first win of the season
Most local teams will be looking for a big improvement when they resume their English Clubs Championship campaigns this weekend. Peterborough, Oundle, Stamford, Spalding, Thorney and Deeping all opened their competitive seasons on a losing note while Peterborough Lions are still searching for a win in National League Division Three after two fixtures.
The Lions were hoping to bounce back from a heartbreaking 21-20defeat at home to Derby in their opening game when they visited Lichfield.
In both fixtures last season the Lions were handsome winners, but on Saturday they had to settle for a 13-13 draw.
“We’re not at the races yet,” said Lions chairman Andy Moore. “We just haven’t got going. We were lacklustre in a very mediocre game of rugby. It was like a mid-season game between two mid-table teams.
“But I’m convinced we’ll sort it soon-hopefully a thome to Longton on Saturday.”
Longton are bottom of the table and Lions beat them 2912 (home) and42-12 (away) last season.
Vernon Horne and Tom Lewis scored tries for the Lions at Lichfield while Jack Lewis was sin-binned for the second week running.
Borough fielded five debutants - three of them South Africans and one a Lithuanian Under 21 international - for their Midlands East Division Two (South) opener at home to Oadby and expectations were high.
But they lost 14-10, just managing to secure a losing bonus point with a try by Chris Sansby deep into injury time.
They also scored in the first minute through stand-in skipper Stuart Day but in between the two scores it was Oadby who dominated in most areas.
Pick of the new comers was the young Lithuanian Paulius Strigonas.
Borough are away next to Oakham, a side who twice beat them last season (35-27 at home and 22-0 away).
In the same division, there were also home defeats for Oundle and Stamford.
Newly-promoted Oundle were pipped 22-21 by Oakham after leading 21-10 with seven minutes to go and Stamford lost 22-5 at home to Luton.
Ex- Lions players Jaco Steenberg, Marc Roussouw and Adam Peel made their Oundle debuts.
Spalding lost 20-6 at home to Coalville in Division Two (North) and Thorney suffered a shock 13- 7 l oss at home to Bourne in Division Four (South).
New-look Stamford College Old Boys, now coached by exBorough boy Sam Sargeant, could be the team to beat in Division Four. They smashed Brackley 30-3 with Haydn Johns scoring 20 points. Brackley won last year’s corresponding fixture 36-0.