Lespierre - 'It's been a team effort all season'

The flying winger, who joined Elthamians at the start of the season from Coventry, scored five tries including a first half hat-trick, to put Barnstaple to the sword and finish as the leading try scorer across the English National Leagues.

It’s the first time an Elthamian has scored five tries in a league game and took Lespierre’s tally for the season to 36 - another club record, beating the previous best of 32 set by Renford Bennett.

Lespierre’s prolific form in the closing stages of the season – he has scored 14 tries in the last five games - has been a crucial factor in the club’s success.

“I don’t think I’ve ever scored five in a game,” the OEs speedster admitted. “Obviously it’s nice to score five, but I was delighted for the team because we’ve worked so hard to get to this point.

“It’s been a team effort throughout the whole season, and we’ve worked really hard through all the ups and downs. At one point it was going away from us but now it’s back in our hands and we can really enjoy the moment. Then the hard work begins again all this week.

“We are not happy with just reaching the play-offs, we want to finish the job now and it’s about focusing on Sale next weekend.”

Updated 20:05 - 2 Sep 2019 by Jon Edwards