Lions closer to regaining Rugby bragging rights

FOR the past five years Rugby Lions have not even been able to claim to be the biggest show in town, let alone Warwickshire.

And whilst that still applies following Newbold on-Avon’s promotion to National Three North, the Webb Ellis Road outfit are fast making up lost ground on their less illustrious neighbours.

Having gone bust and thrown out into the wilderness, the Lions reappeared in the league system in 2012/13 at Level 10.

But, like Richmond before them, another topflight club to fall from grace, they have dusted themselves down and climbed back up the league structure with four consecutive promotions.

Now they are only one rung below Newbold and the level they were at when they were engulfed by debt and bad memories.

“We did go right down to Level 10 which was pretty poor, so we are now getting back up to where we would like to be,” said head coach Rob Dignum.

“But where that ends I don’t know, but at the minute we’ll just keep going.

“Without wishing to take the shine off anything Newbold have done (in winning Midlands One), for 140 years the Lions had been the front runner in terms of teams within the town.

“People throw clichés around about how out of the ashes the phoenix is rising and all that carry on, but we are lucky to be where we are and playing at a lovely ground.

“We were fortunate to inherit a couple of good age-group sides, many of our former U17s played in the first season in Midlands Five,”

At 38, Dignum, a stalwart of 400-plus games for Hinckley, is at the other end of the age scale, but he plans to carry on playing next season.

But that will be in a league where the margins between success and failure will be a lot tighter than the 134-12 thrashing they handed out to Dunlop to win Midlands Two West (South) with a game to spare.

“It was a nice day for me because I got to run out with the kids on my 100th league game and we scored over 100 points,” said Dignum.

“Poor old Dunlop are down and out but they were real heroes, they really were. The score didn’t really reflect the game but 134-12 was a nice way to get promotion.

“It has been a bit onesided up until now but that certainly won’t be the case next season, Midlands One will be a tough level as we’ll be coming up against some semi-professional sides.

“We’ve got to find our feet somewhere along the way and consolidate otherwise we’ll fall flat.”

If that’s the case, Dignum admits that there won’t be any shortage of people taking pleasure in their misfortune thanks to the exploits of the past regime.

“There’s a bit of a stigma associated with Rugby Lions even though what happened in the past has got nothing to do with this group.

“I don’t know if it is borne from envy or what it is but people looking in generally despise the Lions, and people do keep asking if we have paid the gas bill and things like that.

“I know it’s happened (financial problems) not once but two or three other times, but we like to think that we’re on pretty solid foundations now.”