Half Time: - Rugby Lions 16 Bridgewater & Albion 6

Rugby attacked at the beginning of the second half, but failed to penetrate the visitor’s defence. A long clearance kick relieved the pressure and when Rugby failed to secure their own line-out, Bridgewater attacked down the left flank and following a series of drives, Rudkin crashed over in the corner. Cozens converted superbly from the touchline to make the score 16-13.

Bridgewater then messed up their own ball on halfway and Lloyd Warner chased his own kick-ahead to score an opportunist try in the left corner. Hawken’s conversion kick drifted narrowly to the right of the uprights.

Number eight Shaun Brady was then substituted, and his replacement Owen Giles almost immediately suffered the same fate as Mangeolles, and the stretcher was in action again.

A lovely delayed pass from Owens set Warner through the middle, but he was hauled down just short of the line. Owens picked up and drove for the line, but was also held just short. From the resulting ruck, Parker slipped the ball to Warner who ghosted through for his second try of the afternoon. Hawken converted, and Lion’s appeared to be cruising to victory at 28-13. Bridgewater had other ideas however, and appeared to target the home side’s lack of a genuine number eight with a series of pick and drives. With the clock showing 73 minutes, Kimberley was driven over the line, with Cozens converting to make the score 28-20.

Lion’s were defending desperately now, but the visitors still needed two scores. The home side repelled a number of forward drives before a pile of bodies crashed over the try-line. The referee deemed the ball had been grounded and awarded the try. Before the conversion was taken, he had a stern word with Matt Price who had presumably disputed the decision. The kick by Cozens was successful to reduce the deficit to one point. The crucial decision of the match was then made when instead of a restart by Rugby, the referee awarded Bridgewater a penalty on halfway. Cozen’s kick cleared the bar by a foot to give the visitors a most unlikely victory. The celebrations at end of the match made it clear that they could hardly believe it themselves.