Match report and pictures by Dave Rushall

Rugby Lions maintained their position at the top of the league following a comprehensive win over Dunstablians at Bidwell Park. The other contenders for promotion, Bedford and Scunthorpe both secured narrow home wins over Market Bosworth and Burton respectively to make next week’s match with Scunthorpe crucial.

Lions line-up showed numerous enforced changes from the recent victory over Bedford with Sam Overton and Ben Everton replacing Simon Keller and Paul Thompson who were skiing!! Karl Braband returned to partner Ben at lock with Nick Sharpe replacing the injured Wilf Barclay in the back row. Denzil started at centre and Chris Murphy made a welcome return following a lengthy injury lay-off. Matt Davies, making his 100^th appearance for Rugby Lions, captained the side. On the bench were Kelvin Todd, Alex Stajka and new signing, Cambridge Blue centre Steffan Thomas.

Lions started brightly and following a 5-metre lineout on the right flank Matt Davies was driven over for the first score. Glenn Bond converted brilliantly from the touchline against the breeze.

Dees responded immediately and scored two well-worked tries down their right hand side against some paper-thin defence. Both went unconverted to give the home side the lead at 10-7.

Karl Braband then picked up an ankle injury which required him to leave the field and with Kelvin Todd the only forward on the bench some of Lion’s faithful feared the worst. These fears proved groundless however as Lions came back strongly to dominate possession and territory.

Following more pressure and a minor fracas down the right Rugby scored a carbon copy of their first try with Matt Davies again claiming the try. This time Glenn failed with the conversion to give the visitors a 10-12 lead. He soon made amends however with a penalty when Dees were given offside. The restart failed to go 10 metres and from the resulting scrum on half way, Glen Carson picked up and fed scrum half Dave Jackson who went on a dazzling run to score a brilliant try just to the right of the uprights. Glenn converted to make the half time score-line a little more comfortable for the away fans.

Alex Nash was playing superbly and became the main target for the Lion’s throw-ins – not bad for a flanker! Lions continued to dominate up front and following a chip over the top from Jacko intended for winger Chris Murphy, the home fullback made a mess of the catch and the ball drifted into touch near the home 5-metre line. Matt Davies threw in, Ben Everton took the ball and returned it immediately for Matt to race up the touchline to claim his third try of the match. Glenn narrowly missed the conversion attempt.

Dustablians responded soon after with another unconverted try down their right touchline to make the score 15-27. From the restart Dee’s were penalised for offside and Glenn slotted the penalty. 15-30. After more pressure from the pack, Jacko chipped the ball into space and the chasing Denzil Evans was blatantly obstructed. Play carried on however and the ball was gathered by Glenn Bond who fed Nick Sharpe to score unopposed. Glenn failed with the conversion to make the score 15-35.

Unseen by most supporters, Tommy Turner was replaced by new signing Steffan Thomas with Denzil reverting to flyhalf. With almost his first touch, Steffan received the ball from a scrum and showed his strength by barging his way through three would-be defenders to score Lion’s sixth try, converted by Glenn to make the score 15-42 (although the score board showed 15-142).

Dee’s then exerted some pressure being camped in Lion’s 22 for some time but Rugby defended resolutely to keep them out. The final score went to Lion’s when Glenn Bond put over a penalty.

This was a must win game for Rugby and the team performed well to win comfortably. If the Lions can turn over Scunthorpe next Saturday they will have a bit of breathing space as with their vastly superior points difference they could afford one slip up.

The Lions return to league business next Saturday having had a week’s rest since their demanding double-header of the previous fortnight. They successively disposed of Dudley Kingswinford and Bedford Athletic with two of their best performances of the season only to find that Scunthorpe had sneaked up behind them with their third one-point victory of the campaign.

Rugby are away again, but not too far, as they take on Dunstablians at Houghton Regis. How did Houghton earn its royal accolade I wonder? ‘Ds’ lie in eighth place with losses outweighing wins by 2:1, with a points difference of -90. Their wins came at the expense of Burton, Luton, Market Bosworth and Walsall at home and Bromsgrove away. Teams that stole Ds home points were, Bedford Athletic, Luctonians and Scunthorpe.

Until Dunstablians visited Webb Ellis Road last October the two clubs had not previously played each other, so there is no past history that can be used as a form guide, but one would expect a ‘Pools Panel’, if such existed for our humble sport, might settle for an away win.

If Rugby can continue play to their strengths and not risk yellow cards in the latter stages of the second half, they should justify the phantom Pools Panel’s prediction; then of course Rugby have to beat Scunthorpe!