Rugby Lions notched up another home victory in a game that matched the dismal conditions. After building up a seventeen point lead just after half time, Barking came back strongly to put the home side under severe pressure, and with two converted tries they came very close to snatching victory.

Lions opened the scoring in the first minute with a penalty by James Hawken, after Barking were penalised straight from the kick off. After Alex Waller was felled by a punch, the assistant referee intervened and both he and Barking’s Luke Hunter were shown a yellow card, with the penalty being awarded to Rugby. Hawken this time pushed the kick wide of the posts.

A strong run by Phil Reed almost got him to the line, but Barking’s defence just held out. In the next attack, James Hawken came into the line, and his strength enabled him to barge through and dive over for a try. Hawken converted for a 10-0 lead with thirty minutes on the clock.

A string of penalties had been conceded by the visitors, and following a final warning, the referee’s patience ran out, with Robinson given a spell in the bin for going to ground and killing the ball.

Rugby started the second half strongly and following a series of strong runs they got to within five metres of the line. Toby Handley then sold one of his typical dummies and just managed to burrow over the try line. Hawken converted to give Lion’s a bit of breathing space at 17-0.

This did not last long, however as Barking hit straight back, and poor tackling allowed replacement Tavela Kwilimbe to stroll through and score near the uprights with his first touch of the ball. Oliver Crosby converted to put the visitors right back in the game.

This appeared to lift Barking and they raised their game to stretch Lions to the limit. They retained possession well, and play was confined almost entirely to the New Street end, which Barking were attacking.

Following a series of drives by the visitors, James Kelland spotted a hole in the defence, which he exploited at great speed to dive over by the uprights. Crosby converted to reduce the deficit to only three points, and with twenty-eight minutes still to play, the home supporters were becoming extremely edgy.

Toby Handley was replaced by Lloyd Warner, with Phil Reed reverting to his old position of scrum half. Tom Harris was forced off with a cut head to be replaced by Ade Hales, before returning to the field in place of Michael Rust.

A rare break from their own twenty two by Lion’s saw Harris streak downfield with Hales on his shoulder. Ade switched play left, but the ball was knocked forward on the five metre line, and the chance was gone. A spell of possession by Rugby near halfway at least eased the tension slightly for the supporters, and with the light fading and the rain falling, Lion’s just managed to hold on for victory.

The last time (it was also the first time) that Rugby played Barking in a game where anything more than pride was at stake, was at Dagenham in Round 2 of the Pilkington Cup on November 4^th 1989. On that occasion Rugby were in National 2 and Barking in London 2 North, Lions captain and former England hooker Steve Brain was propped by Iain Heywood and Trevor Revan and in the back row was a young Mark.R Ellis making his 18^th appearance in a side that was ‘going places’. Rugby won that game 3-38, but were knocked out later on by Wakefield.

This season the performance of both teams has been erratic. As a consequence of this both are climbing back through a highly competitive middle zone of the league table with Barking one point ahead after nine games

Last Saturday if the Lions lacked anything it was the finishing touch, the penultimate handling move to make touchdown a certainty. No doubt Mark R Ellis would be content to see his very own Lions, 19 years on, with another 38-3 victory.