Southam 28 - 3 Leamington

On Captains Day, in front of a large crowd, Southam complete the home & away double against local rivals Leamington.
After the decisive bonus point win in October, a casual observer might have written this game down as a Southam home win, but with both teams only securing 1 win in 5, over the christmas period, it could have been tricky day for Southam.

Southam stuttered at the start with a mistake from the kickoff, continuing onto a Leamington penalty after 3 minutes for over the ruck. With a stiff breeze in Southam's faces, the rest of the first half was hard fought with both sides tackling hard and neither side getting a breakthrough. With neither side gaining dominance, tempers frayed and after 15 minutes, with the referee having awarded multiple penalties, he eventually yellow carded Southam scrum half Lewis Dodds and the Leamington No.7 for handbags. The half continued in the same vein, but after 40 minutes Southam captain, Will Grindal levelled it with nicely slotted 45m penalty into the breeze.
HT 3-3

The second half never really got going as the referee continued to award penalties and Southam could never really get on the front foot, there only early reward was 5 minutes in, was a Grindal penalty for offside at the ruck. Southam gradually gained dominance as the half went on, from clean lineout ball through 2nd row Matt Taylor and driving runs from No8 James Finch, fly half Tom Grimes, and centres Will Wood and new boy Richard Lloyd Jones, but still it took 30 minutes before Southam added to their points count, getting into the Leamington 22 and staying there, a scrum 7m out and saw No8 Finch pick up, break open and drive through the Leamington defence for the try. The Leamington kick off, did not go 10m and from the scrum Southam broke blind, spread to wing Russ King, who made ground up to the Leamington 22, the ball was recycled twice across the 22 and coming back to the clubhouse, the ball was spread to Grindal, he found the gap, and stepped the last man for the try, converted by Grindal.

42 minutes in and time was running out, with the referee continuing to award penalties the chances of a bonus point looked very slim, a ray of hope came with Leamington pushing the game, the ball was spilled on the halfway, wing Sam Bench hacked on into the Leamington 22, picked up, shrugged of the Leamington tacklers to go over fro the try. The referee played on (and on) and at the death he was still awarding penalty after penalty and as such could not stop the game, at 52 minutes in, on the sixth consecutive penalty, Southam were back in there 22 and after a wayward pass to Grimes, he had to break back across the 22m to shrug off the tacklers, Grimes broke up the blind, beating 2 defenders, before setting King off up the wing, King made 20m, laid off the ball to Taylor, who found Grindal, Grindal made the ground up to the Leamington 5m before laying of the ball to Jones for the try.
FT 28 - 3

A really good day for Southam in front of large crowd of supporters and ex. players, who had come down for a well attended Captains Day.
Another first for Southam, doing the double over local rivals Leamington and gaining a bonus points in the bargain, the team worked hard, right to the death to overcome a stubborn Leamington and a whistle happy referee.

MOTM Matt Taylor