The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
The Lions have come roaring back to life!
Resurgent Peterborough Lions powered into the final of the Counties 1 North Shield with a thrilling 33-29 semifinal success over Droitwich at Bretton Park.
Their reward is a long trek to a final against North East side Beverley RUFC at the Darlington Arena on Sunday.
It’s been another tough league season for the Lions, but the spirit remains strong as they showed by claiming a late winning try from skipper Kane Hardwick not long after they had been reduced to 13 men by two yellow cards.
Droitwich pounced on their numerical advantage to re-take the lead in a topsy-turvy encounter, but Hardwick was pushed over the line by his fellow forwards to the joy of a large home crowd. Will Moore kicked the conversion, his fourth of the game.
A Dylan Evans try and a Moore conversion had given Lions a 7-0 lead, but the visitors had moved 19-7 ahead before the Evans and Moore combination struck again to make it 19-14 to Droitwich at the interval.
Lions conceded a penalty early in the second-half, but struck back with two quick tries from number eight Roy Lolesio and prop Nigel Lewis. Moore converted one to make it 26-22 to Lions.
A converted try against a team two players down looked to have sealed victory
for Droitwich, but the proud Lions hit back in style in front of new coach Pete Kolakowski.
He has replaced Trompie Du Toit who stepped down after ensuring Lions avoided a fourth successive relegation.
The club are running coaches to Darlington leaving their base at 9am on Sunday and costing around £12. Call 07710 205015 for further information. Admission to the game is free.
OUNDLE RFC
Oundle also have a final to look forward to on Saturday as they travel to Worcester to face Wirrall in a Papa John’s Cup decider (5pm kick off ).
Oundle reached the big game in dramatic fashion as Jordan Carey’s last-gasp kick delivered a 32-30 semi-final success over Old Northamptonians at Occupation Road.
Oundle had been 22-12 down at one point. Matty Ma’asi, Luke Shipley, Charlie Frankham, Logan Noble and Bryn Jones scored their tries.
BOROUGH JUNIORS
Peterborough Rugby Club’s junior teams have wrapped up their season with the under 16s running in 12 tries in a 74-12 demolition of Wisbech.
Ashton Fletcher grabbed four tries, while Charlie Brown and Charlie Janaway scored two apiece and there were also tries for Harrison Spriggs, Will Bull, Harry Smalls and Ollie Burpitt. Eddie Anderson kicked seven conversions.
Not such good news for the under 15s with Ross Milne the only scorer in a 20-5 defeat against Wisbech.
The under 14s were 24-7 winners over the same opposition, with Archie Webb, Osker Stocks, Jonty Faith and Jonty Anderson touching down and conversions kicked by Faith and Cayden Genovese.
Fin Craighead was manof-the-match on his debut for the under 13s who lost 5035 to Bourne. Kian Herring celebrated a hat trick of tries, while Alfie Tsang crossed twice. Alfie Howson and Toby Burpitt also scored.