'Boro get big win away to South Leicester

Loughborough 2nd XV made the trip down to South Leicester for a friendly, returning to a club many had joined forces with shortly before covid when numbers were struggling and a sort of Barbarians team was created. A strong Loughborough team included a few ‘vets’ returning for their first run-out in 5 years which saw a couple of panicked trips to Sports Direct for brand-new boots and shorts that morning!

The game would start with ‘Boro marching down the field and vet no. 8 Mat Nurse holding the width and finishing off simple hands move out wide. Captain and Scrum Half Kenny Baughan would then catch the kick off, chip over the first line, kick the bouncing ball onwards and chase down the South Leicester Fullback. An attempted step just ran straight into Baughan who tackled the ball out and Second Row David ‘Scottish’ Hunter ran onto the loose ball and touched it down.

This early success potentially saw ‘Boro get complacent with one silly penalty leading to three or more giving South territory inside ‘Boro’s 22. Continuation of silly penalties and ill-advised offloads led to a loose ball being scooped up by South 5m out to dot down. A quick emergency meeting, a tweak to the lineout routine that stopped South’s blitz defence and a few calm heads led to a corner attack of back-to-back forward phases continually attacking the corner that eventually opened up a hole for Scottish to power through and touch down for his second.

The second half saw the rest of the subs come on, including returning vet James Brind joining his brother Ryan for a centre partnership that would not shy away from a hard carry! South would get their final points with ‘Boro not waking up quick enough after a fairly long half time break. Once again ‘Boro returned to their corner attack, forwards phase play that would see replacement hooker Toby Lee score a strange try where his final carry left him short, on his knees to which in slow motion he reached out and touched the ball onto the line. The game finally started to open up, student winger Rhys Homfray finally got to show off his wheels with a lovely in-and-out swerving line out-wide and Flanker Sam Roberts dotted down under the posts after good forward play keeping it tight and the backs spread wide leaving a gaping hole down the middle for Sam to jog through.

Second Row Jamie Grice scored from probably close to the halfway line, genuinely! By this point ‘Boro were starting to run riot with a good few number of options for hard carries and tap-and-go penalties eventually saw the ball break to Grice who managed to find a track of treacle to struggle through for his run through! Kenny Baughan picked-and-went tight around another halfway line ruck after another set of hard carries and offloads from the forwards opened up another gaping hole. The final try would see James Brind break down the right hand wing, palm off a few defenders and dot down in the corner.

All round it was a great day for ‘Boro to get a 53-12 win.