Park tame the Lions in nine-try eye-catcher

Sedgley Park .... 36pts Leicester Lions 27pts

SEDGLEY Park have made a habit of claiming key victories at critical times this season – and they did it again, securing a crucial bonus-point win over Leicester Lions.

Inspired by the outstanding Richard Wainwright, they outgunned their visitors, scoring five tries to the Lions’ four in a thrilling contest.

The victory means Park leapfrog their opponents in the table and move two points ahead in third.

And Sedgley head coach Dean Schofield is now hopeful they can go on and make that position their own.

He said: “The boys came together and put in an excellent performance.

“To take maximum points against a side like Leicester Lions, in what was a hard-fought match, was really something special.

“We still have a lot of things to work on, but with six games to go, we want to make third place our own.”

Leicester edged the reverse fixture 26-23 earlier in the season, and they made an equally good start at Westleigh Park.

They camped themselves inside Park’s half early on, with hooker Oliver Taylor opening the scoring with an unconverted try.

Stephen Collins kicked Park on to the scoreboard soon after, but the Lions extended their lead when Samuel Benjamin dotted down his first, with Elliot Bale this time adding the extras.

Nevertheless, three tries before the break from Ben Black, Juan Crous and Matt Riley enabled Park to fight back and take the lead.

Fly-half Collins added the first two conversion but missed the third on the stroke of half-time, 22-15.

Sedgley then secured their try-scoring bonuspoint soon after the restart when Samuel Lowthion slipped in winger Andrew Riley to crash over.

They didn’t take long to extend their lead further when replacement George Hymes dotted down their fifth try.

Collins added the extras on both to give the home side a healthy 36-15 lead.

However, with Park a man down, Leicester scored tries through Benjamin, who grabbed his second, and Jamel Hamilton to secure a try-scoring bonus-point.

Despite Leicester’s best efforts though, they couldn’t find a fifth try, which would have got them a losing bonus point from the game.

And Leicester head coach Andy Key was disappointed his side fell to their third straight defeat away from home.

“We played brilliantly so it’s a real shame we couldn’t quite get that second bonus point late on,” he said.

“We’ve had a great season and, although this was a tough game, I’m sure we can end the campaign on a high.

“We’re back at home next week against an excellent Chester side so we cannot afford to feel sorry for ourselves.”