Leam go close at Laurentians

15th January 2022 – Old Laurentians v Leamington

Despite the poor quality playing surface, cold conditions and a greasy ball, Leamington put in another top quality performance, which both buoyed their travelling support and put the fear of god into the home side and their patrons. The visitors were creative as well as cohesive in all departments; the Pack, where Craig Smith, Tom Lane and Ali Weedon were once again dominant, bullied the home side throughout and the Centre partnership of Harry Johnson and Rich McKowen ran their opponents ragged, with some excellent attack play.

Whilst the home side had opened up an early and surprising 10 nil lead, Leamington had been the team playing the quality rugby and on 25 minutes were justly rewarded. They had secured lineout ball in the home side 22 and there following forward offensive forced OL’s to concede a series of penalties. Opting for another lineout, Ed Gray secured possession and allowed his support to drive over, with Tom lane getting the all important touchdown. James Dunne was agonisingly close with the conversion attempt, seeing his kick hit the upright and drop clear.

Leamington were soon to take the lead, with some more high octane play from the pack. Tom Lane found himself clear, at a lineout and his charge to the line was just held up by the home defence. Once again the OL’s were forced into conceding more penalties and with the Referee playing advantage, Scrum-half, George Jacobs, caught the home side napping with a sniping run that saw him dive through for a superbly engineered score. This time Dunne made no mistake with the conversion, to put side in front at the break.

Half Time: 10 -12

The match was very entertaining for the independent spectator and Leamington were clearly full of confidence and taking every opportunity to test the home defences. Wingers, Logan Deely and Conor Chamberlain were full of running, giving support to each other, on either wing and the half-back partnership of Jacobs and Sam Nunn made sure that the backline was fed with plenty of quality possession from the set piece.

The home side made some changes to the onfield squad and one in particular brought immediate success with an unconverted score. The some clever play brought them another unconverted score, thus opening up an eight point gap.

However, Leamington had more to offer and set about orchestrating a grand stand finish, with some fast flowing football which nearly “brought home the bacon”!

The home side were continually falling foul of the Referee’s whistle, conceding numerous penalties and Dunne was quick to seize the opportunity to kick his side within two points of the opposition. His two kicks were interspersed by what was probably the best piece of attack play of the match. Following the restart from Dunne’s first penalty, Craig Smith took possession and side-stepped and then sprinted upfield. Gareth Shuttleworth was in support to take the offload and with the home defence floundering, they were fortunate to just see out the danger.

As the match entered the final minutes, it was Leamington asking all of the questions and at the final whistle the sigh’s and gasps of relief from the home side were palpable.

Full Time: 20 - 18