Rugby Lions won this vital top of the table clash to
put them in pole position for automatic promotion back into the National
Leagues. With Bedford being docked 2 points, this puts Lions four points
ahead (five if you include the vastly superior points difference) with
five games left, although Scunthorpe do have a game in hand.
Denzil Evans started his first game this season at fly half replacing
Tommy Turner and centre Steffan Thomas and wing Sam Montague made their
home debuts. Steve Stewart partnered Tommo at lock and Sam Overton and
Nick Sharpe kept their places at prop and flanker respectively.
On a lovely bright day Lions began well with Denzil just failing with
a drop goal attempt in the first minute. Following a scrum in front of
the clubhouse, Steffan Thomas made a dummy run and Denzil delayed his
pass just long enough to enable Ricky Hislop to crash over just left of
the uprights. Glenn Bond made no mistake with conversion.
Lions continued to dominate possession and territory and were
rewarded on 18 minutes when Denzil made a lovely break on half way to
feed Steffan to score just to the right of the posts. Glenn again
converted for a 14-0 lead.
It was looking fairly comfortable at this stage, but Lions have a
habit of keeping the opposition interested and so it proved when they
conceded two soft tries, one in injury time, to make for an unlikely
score at half time.
In between Scunthorpe’s two scores Rugby crossed the try line twice
more but were denied when first Matt Davies appeared to score from a
typical charge and Sam Montague went over in front of the clubhouse.
Matt’s ‘score’ was deemed to have had a Scunthorpe arm under the ball,
and Sam apparently lost the ball forward in the act of touching down.
Half Time Rugby Lions 14 Scunthorpe 12
Rugby started the second half a little nervously with
both Glenn Bond and Denzil Evans kicking straight into touch from just
outside their own 22. From the resulting line-out, the away side
attempted to run the ball but a knock-on gave Lions a chance to counter
attack. Alex Nash picked up the loose ball and fed Ricky Hislop. He
passed to Dave Clements who chipped the ball down the right hand
touch-line and gave chase. A ruck formed 3 metres from the try line and
with all the defence sucked in Denzil had the vision to see the space to
the left. He chipped the ball deftly for Sam Montague to drop on the
ball over the try-line with no defender within 20 metres of him. Glenn
Bond this time pulled his conversion a metre left of the uprights.
Shortly after, Sam Montague had to leave the field
with a thigh injury to be replaced by Alex Stajka. Lion’s pack continued
to dominate and Glenn Bond slotted a penalty to make the score 22-12
after 11 minutes.
A few ironical cheers went up after Denzil found
touch with a penalty after slicing a previous attempt. Lions won the
line out and Dave Clements came off his wing to join the attack. A
lovely bit of interplay with Glenn Bond resulted in the diminutive
winger having the strength to force his way over the line despite close
attention from a number of defenders. Glenn expertly added the
conversion to put Lions out of sight at 29-12 after sixteen minutes?
Wrong – a long floated pass from Denzil intended for
Ricky Hislop was intercepted easily on half-way for a converted try
under the posts to allow the away team another sniff at an unlikely
result.
It wasn’t to be however for Scunthorpe, as the home
side continued to apply the pressure. Two yellow cards for killing the
ball near their own line, which both resulted in penalties for Glenn
Bond, meant that their already pressured pack was weakened beyond hope.
