|
Christmas?? Bah…….Humbug!! Lions and Dourbridge failed to serve up any
festive fayre in a game dominated by the referee’s whistle as the visitors
employed spoiling tactics from the off, and Lions conspired to make hard
work of beating them with a series of handling errors and poor decision
making. It was only a piece of Spencer Brown magic that lit up an
otherwise dull afternoon that even made Christmas shopping with the wife
look an attractive alternative.
With Gareth Collins and Dan South both still not fit, Pete Roberts moved
to the wing with Scott Read (on loan from Pertemps Bees) coming in at
centre. Lions preferred Steve Smith at number 8, with Eddie Simkiss
moving to lock, which meant that Stomper Stannard started on the bench.
Playing into a strong wind, Lions made the early period difficult for
themselves with a series of missed touch kicks. Dourbridge made their
intentions clear from the off with a series of penalties against them as
they stifled Lions’ possession by any means possible…..killing the ball,
pulling lineouts down, coming in from the side of mauls, offside………you
name it and it was in their repertoire! Lions were finding it hard to
establish any rhythm, and the cause was not helped by an injury to Jon
Boden that saw Tim O’Shea replace him. Lions played musical chairs to
accommodate him in the centre, with Warner Page moving to fullback and Sam
Stoop taking over at fly half.
After a series of lineouts in the corner following several penalties,
Lions were awarded a penalty under the posts as they drove in, which Sam
Stoop converted with ease. ( 3 – 0 )
After 20 minutes, the afternoon was lit up by an electrifying break in
midfield by Spencer Brown, who fed the supporting Warner Page for the
games opening try. Sam Stoop’s touchline conversion was well wide in the
strong wind. ( 8 – 0 )
Dour replied with a strong forward drive, and now it was Lions’ turn to
concede penalties, the last of which provided fly half Craig Jones with
his team’s first points from in front of the posts. ( 8 – 3 )
Another replacement for Lions saw Matt Davies come on for Phil Greenbury.
Yet more penalties against Lions saw Dourbridge work their way up field,
and a final drive from a lineout in the corner provided their first try.
Now here’s a question that will get asked in pubs and clubs across the
land. Tell me when a conversion went over the crossbar and between the
posts, but wasn’t given? Ask Dour’s Craig Jones. His touchline
conversion hit a post, bounced down, came back up and landed on the
crossbar and then dropped over! It wasn’t allowed of course, but it
provided a moment of chuckle-muscle exercise on an otherwise chuckle-less
afternoon. It’s a pity that Lions’ cameraman Dave Rushall was not around
to record the event.
The
referee at last took action against Dour’s spoiling tactics by despatching
lock Neil Mitchell to the bin on the stroke of half time for coming into a
maul from the side.
Half time
Lions 8 Stourbridge 8
Lions sought to add to their tally with the strong wind at their backs,
and Pete Roberts almost obliged from the kick off, but was forced into
touch at the corner. However, Lions were not to be denied as a penalty
was tapped to the corner, and the lineout provided an unstoppable drive
for Lions’ second try. The conversion attempt was blown well wide by the
gusting wind. ( 13 – 8 )
Dour replied immediately as Lions were penalised for not rolling away from
the tackle, and Craig Jones added the 3 points from 30 metres. ( 13 – 11
)
What followed for what seemed an eternity was a comedy of errors from
Lions that had the Shed faithful wondering how much worse things could
get. Suddenly the lineout was going horribly wrong, the scrum was going
backwards, the backs were lying flat and taking man and ball, the forwards
were making little impact, wrong decisions were taken resulting in
penalties or turnovers. Apart from that, things were looking pretty
good!!
Lions did have their opportunities. Scott Read was unlucky not to score
after hacking on a dropped Stour ball, but he knocked on in trying to
gather the ball feet from the line. Dour also were incapable of stringing
a meaningful attack together. What they did manage came as a result of
Lions gifting them possession. On one such occasion, the Dour wing found
himself free on half way with no-one near him. Off he set for the
line……..would he score? Is the Pope Catholic? Do bears ……..no, we’ve
done that one already. Well he should have scored, but Lions’ lock Dave
Campton had other ideas. He set off after the not-so speedy winger, who
must have heard Dave’s size 12’s catching him and decided to stop and look
for support. Wrong option!! The wing might have stopped, but Dave is
like an oil-tanker at sea and takes some time to come to a halt. Instead
he hammered into the stationary wing and the danger was over.
With about 10 minutes of injury time being played, the Shed had to endure
more incompetence from both sides before the referee finally put everyone
out of their misery as he blew for full time.
Final result:
Lions 13 Stourbridge 11
Don's musings
As
the Doc always says………a win’s a win. It shows how Lions’ season has
turned when they can win a game in which they played so poorly. True the
conditions were far from ideal….in fact they were b****y awful……..and Dour
just didn’t want to play rugby, but if Lions had shown anything like the
form displayed the last 2 weeks against Wharfedale and Sedgley Park, then
they would have scored a hatful of points.
On
the team selection side, I still think that Lions’ best lock combination
is Dave Campton and Stomper Stannard, with Eddie Simkiss at 8. Good as
Steve Smith is, we didn’t see the control at the base of the scrum today
that we have seen in recent weeks. Steve is great to bring on from the
bench as an impact player when the need arises.
Praise must go to Tank today for the superb condition of the pitch.
Following all the rain, people would not have been surprised to see the
pitch turn into a quagmire, but it held up remarkably well, and cannot be
used as an excuse for the poor rugby served up today. Nice one Tank.
It
was interesting to see several Coventry Directors at Lions today being
entertained by David Owen. A case of festive good cheer………or something
more sinister? What would I like for Christmas? I’d like David Owen to
stop playing with our emotions and tell us that there is no truth in the
rumour that Lions will EVER play their home games at Coventry’s new
stadium. No matter how poor the Lions play, they are still OUR team and
we want to watch them in Rugby where they belong.
With no game next week, this will be my last match report of 2003, so I’d
just like to wish each and every one of you a very merry (I know I will
be!!) Christmas and a happy and prosperous (I hope I will be) New Year. |
