Lions don’t look back after electric start against Dings

Leicester Lions 32 Dings Crusaders 15

AN ELECTRIC start by Leicester Lions put them on the path to victory against midtable rivals Dings Crusaders, writes Michael Howkins.

On a sunny and dry afternoon, Lions made a superb start with two tries in quick succession.

Lions put Dings under pressure from the start with a move that went right, left and back right again for winger Jake Sterland to open the scoring with a try, converted by Ben Young.

Lions kept up the pressure and this time their fly-half Young scythed through the centre to score their second try, which he converted, to put Lions 14-0 up after seven minutes.

Dings started to come back into the game and their winger Ian Clark outpaced the Lions defence to go over for an unconverted try in the corner.

But Lions hit back when Devon Constant dashed along the wing and then delivered a delightful slip pass to Alex Wilcockson, who glided over for a try, to put Lions 19-5 ahead.

But some careless play led to Lions giving away a penalty, which was scored by Tom Price, to reduce their lead to 19-8 at half time.

Dings started the second half by putting Lions under pressure with some impressive forward driving tight mauls.

On 48 minutes, Oliver Bilton drove over for a Dings try, converted by Price, taking the score to 19-15 and bringing the visitors right back in the game.

Lions then started to show their class when a quickly taken penalty allowed Nick Cairns to magically weave his way through the Dings’ defence for a try.

This was quickly followed by Sterland’s second try when he outran the Dings’ defence to extend Lions’ lead to 29-15.

The home side completed the scoring with a penalty by Jack Vernum to seal a well-deserved victory.

Leicester Lions head coach Gareth Collins, said: “Our attack was threatening all afternoon and we couldn’t have asked for a better start.

“Fair play to Dings though, they worked their way back in to the contest and made it hard work for us.

“We knew they had a strong scrum and a really effective catch and drive so we wanted to try and keep them away from our 22 as much as possible.

“Unfortunately our error count and discipline let us down in the latter stages of the first half but we sorted a few issues at half-time and I was happy with how we closed the game out second half.”

Lions chairman Ken Whitehead said: “The first ten minutes were a most impressive start by Lions, but Dings came back well. It was most pleasing to see the way the lads applied themselves to take the win.”

On Saturday, Lions will be travelling west to play at Barnstaple RFC in Devon (kick-off 2pm).