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Christmas came early for
Birmingham & Solihull as a totally inept performance by the Lions
gifted them 2 tries and a win that the Bees deserved if only for being
more “streetwise” than a young and inexperienced Lions team.
The Lions’ scrum was
particularly vulnerable as the powerful Bees pack drove them back or
turned them at every set piece, so the backs never had the opportunity to
go forward with decent possession. What
scraps they did get were thrown away by some abysmal handling that
resulted in 3 good try scoring opportunities being missed.
The writing was on the wall in
the first five minutes as Bees used the wind to good advantage to set up
position close to Lions’ line. The
inevitable take and drive from the line-out was unstoppable as Bees
claimed the first try, and an excellent conversion from wide out put them
in the driving seat.
Lions showed what they were
capable of with a strong Tim Collier drive that had Bees penalised for
coming in the wrong side of the maul.
Richard Davis made no mistake with the simple kick.
Bees extended their lead with a
piece of magic from fly half Louis Criscuolo.
35 metres out he feinted a drop goal with his right foot to commit
the defence, before calmly switching to his left foot to strike a sweet
drop goal from 35 metres.
Lions came back strongly, but
solid tackling by Bees coupled with a total lack of imagination from the
Lions, meant there were no more points on the board.
Promising positions were lost through penalties or poor handling.
First Phil Reed threw out a dreadful pass with a clear overlap
outside him, then debutante Chris Richards dropped the ball with the line
at his mercy.
To add insult to injury, Bees
then broke away to score themselves.
An attempted chip by Fa’atoto Moananu in Bees’ 22 was plucked
out of the air by Flapper Underhill who charged to half way.
As he ran out of steam and the defence caught him, he put in an
intelligent kick that Nick Baxter had all the time in the world to pick up
and canter behind the posts. The
conversion left Lions well adrift at half time.
 |
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| Flapper on the attack |
and chips ahead |
| Half time |
| Lions
3
Birmingham & Solihull
17 |
Lions needed an early score to
get themselves back in the game, but apart from a Richard Davis penalty,
they never really looked capable of breaking down a stubborn Bees’
defence.
Lions’ afternoon was summed
up as, after a long spell camped in the Bees’ half, a penalty was given
against them on half way. Criscuolo’s
kick to the corner was held up in the wind, and as the Lions’ defence
stood and watched, Nick Baxter followed up to take a kindly bounce and
cross for his second try.
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|
My ball !!!!!!!!!!!!! |
Baxter touches down |
With the conversion failing,
Lions were on the end of a beating from a very ordinary Bees side due
their own total ineptitude.
| Final result: |
| Lions
6
Birmingham & Solihull
22 |
Undoubtedly the worst
performance from a Lions’ side for quite some time saw them surrender
their proud unbeaten home record. The
galling thing is that recent defeats have been at the hands of some very
ordinary sides whom Lions should really have beaten, and beaten well.
The highlight of the game was
the Shed’s performance. Some
of the Bees’ “spoiling” tactics did not earn favour in the Shed,
topped by the Bees’ hooker constantly delaying the put in at the line,
spiced up each time with a couple of “dummies”.
Just to make sure that the referee recognised what was going on,
the Shed started to count loudly as the Bees’ hooker lined up his throw.
With the count at 8, the referee penalised Bees for delaying the
throw in. After that, with
the Shed counting down at each line-out, the hurried throws from the
Bees’ hooker were never quite the same!!
The only way to look at this
game is to put it down to a bad day at the office.
Lions must really put this sort of performance behind them.
We really do need the front five sorting so that we are not
constantly on the back foot. The
team has showed glimpses of what it is capable of, but this has now got to
be turned into a solid 80 minutes performance week after week.
Let’s hope that things are
sorted in training and we can go into next week’s cup game at Rotherham
with some pride and commitment. Come
on guys…….you owe the Shed one!! |
