*Rugby Lions started the new year by ending Park’s three match winning run in a hard fought and feisty encounter at a cold but sunny Webb Ellis Road. Lions opened the scoring with a penalty from James Hawken. This was slightly against the run of play, however, and following a yellow card for Karl Braband for dropping a maul, poor midfield tackling allowed Park’s centre Cunliffe to score under the posts. Soutar converted for a 3-7 lead. A sustained period of pressure, with Lion’s camped in the visitor’s 22 resulted in a penalty in front of the posts for Hawken to reduce the deficit. Lion’s were well on top now, and the pressure eventually told with Ade Hales forcing his way over after a strong run from Matt Goode. Hawken pushed the conversion wide of the posts. It was one-way traffic at this stage, and a good pass from Sam Viggers gave Ade Hales plenty of room to outpace the opposition for his second try. The conversion from the touchline was again missed.

Rugby allowed the visitors to get right back in the game when speedy winger Williams ran the ball in soccer-style from 40 metres to touch down under the posts. With Soutar converting, the gap was down to two points. Ade Hales was limping quite badly, and was soon replaced by Steve Clarke on the left wing.

Lion’s extended their lead when a rolling maul resulted in a try for Tristan Prosser-Shaw, despite a blatant attempt at pulling it down two metres from the line, which the referee had seen and was playing advantage for. The culprit was called over and spoken to but no card was produced. It would seem that a yellow card is only deemed necessary if a try is not scored.

Although the first half was played in a good spirit, you could sense the tension rising between the two sets of players, and the second half was more like a game from the 80’s with justice and retribution being settled on the pitch. Following an off the ball incident and an intervention from the touch judge, another Park player was given just a ticking off, much to the displeasure of the crowd and you could sense that the referee was losing control of the game. At the next lineout the referee’s patience finally ran out and Park’s Alan Marsh was carded for pulling the resulting maul down.

Toby Handley then put in a late tackle on Park’s Hitchmough deep in the visitor’s goal area. Park’s number 21 took exception to this and ran (as fast as he could) 20 metres to launch an assault on Handley, almost forcing him over the barrier and into the crowd. Other players from both sides joined in before sanity was restored. After a lengthy discussion with both touch judges, both captains were spoken to but incredibly no cards were produced. A penalty to Lion’s was awarded on the five-metre line, so presumably the assault was witnessed by the officials. Matt Goode’s genuine attempt at a charge down on Hitchmough’s clearance kick, again deep into the visitor’s in-goal area, resulted in a very harsh yellow card. Clearly a consequence of what had previously occurred.

Then in another off the ball incident, replacement Park prop Marshall was shown a straight red card for a late challenge on Tommy Turner. Common sense then seemed to return, and Rugby pinned the visitors in their own 22 looking for the fourth try and bonus point. A series of pick of drives were held up just in front of the clubhouse, so Rugby moved the ball across the field where Steve Clark was stopped two metres short of the line. The final whistle went early with only four minutes extra time played, to end a pulsating second half, which certainly got the crowd involved.