28 Nov 09
Midlands 2 West (South)
Old Laurentian’s 30 - Barkers Butts 19
Despite the excellent conditions, both Barkers & OL’s produced a very scrappy opening 30 minutes with several turnovers disrupting attacking play, although Barkers dominated the early exchanges. The deadlock was broken on the half hour when Denzil Evans opened the scoring with a penalty to give the home side a 3-0 lead.
This score appeared to spur the home side into life and OL’s added a superb opening try, which saw Steve Pike breaking several tackles before offloading to Andy Coleman. Quick hands allowed Danny Murch to make good ground before releasing Simon Bayliss, who ran in from 30 yards to score under the posts, providing Evans with an easy conversion.
OL’s were finding their form now and within 5 minutes, a superb turnover from skipper Glenn Todd launched another good move, which saw scrum half Parker throw several of his customary dummies, before passing inside to flanker Andrew Orbinson, who touched down under the posts. Evans again converted for a 17-0 half-time lead.
The team talk from Barkers must have concentrated on keeping the ball within the forwards, as they dominated the opening spell of the 2nd half, culminating in an unconverted try for their number 4 from a maul to reduce the deficit to 17-5.
OL’s stretched their lead to 20-5 with a second penalty from Evans and, within 5 minutes, the fly-half added to his tally when he spotted a big gap in the Barkers defence to slice through from 20 metres to score a solo try, which he successfully converted.
Barkers forwards kept plugging away and, after a period of sustained pressure, were rewarded with another try from a maul.
The conversion reduced the arrears to 27-12 before Evans added his third penalty to take the home side into a secure position. Barkers scored a late converted try with the, now customary, forwards maul to produce a final score of 30-19.
Despite concerns over a lack of forward power against a strong Barkers pack, a personal haul of 20 points from Man of the Match, Denzil Evans, who controlled the game throughout, helped secure a win, which puts OL’s back in contention for League honours.
report by Colin Wiles
Warwickshire Cup
Old Coventrians 15 - Old Laurentian 2nd XV 5
OL 2nd XV travelled to Old Coventrians, having beaten them at home 3 weeks earlier by an 84-0 margin. As expected OL’s came up against a totally different outfit!
The hosts assembled a side full of ex Coventry and Broadstreet players, full of class and experience.
The game commenced in heavy rain and OL’s, unusually, started very quietly with the home side dominating from the off. OL’s defence was resolute and managed to keep the visitors at bay for 20 minutes before Old Coventrians scored their first try.
The host’s forwards continue to dominate for the next 10 minutes resulting in another try for a 10-0 lead.
This spurred OL’s into life and they ended the half much brighter and with a sense that, despite all of Old Coventrian’s pressure, we were still very much in this game.
After re-grouping at half time and, with the introduction of Paul Amor & Rich Foxon, OL’s took the game to Old Coventrians and a period of strong pressure disrupted the home side and saw the excellent Jon Deenik pick up and power over from the 22.
For the first time in the game OL’s forwards had parity in the scrum and line out and a comeback win looked on the cards.
OL’s task was made harder however, when, for the first time in the second half, OC’s put a move together to score in the corner.
From then on, it was all OL’s, but, in playing “catch-up” rugby, the necessary composure to win the game was not evident and they were unable to breach the home line again.
The last throw of the dice was considered by introducing the twice-fuelled Bernai, but it was decided that we couldn’t afford him to run out of gas twice in one day!
A disappointing defeat, but pride must be taken in the defensive performance and a much improved never-say-die second half showing from all the players.
It’s never nice being knocked out of the Warwickshire Cup, but the 2nd XV still have much to play for in the Clonmell Cup and in challenging for league honours.
Captain Ricky Reed will be rallying the troops ahead of this week’s home league encounter against unbeaten Nuneaton Old Edwardians.
report by Dean CobleyFriendly
Towcestrians 3rds 19 - OL's 3rds 40
Following a month's absence from the field of play due to lack of numbers, OL's 3rd’s finally took to the road again with a visit to Towcestrians.
Travelling with only 14 men, several of whom were playing out of position, it looked to be a long afternoon. OL's started the game apace however, with their forwards taking early control in the loose and good handling skills throughout the team saw the first try arrive, courtesy of Fly half Daz Price, who danced through the defence to go under the posts.
Kev White added the simple conversion. Unfortunately, OL's then fell into the trap of trying to outgun the far bigger Towcester pack, who relished the opportunity to put the visitors in their place.
With a combination of big positional kicks from their fly half and strong rolling mauls from the pack, Towcester took the game by the scruff of the neck to run in 3 tries in quick succesion.
That said, OL's had the final say of the half when a brilliant bit of running up his own backside by scrum half Mark 'Macca' Owen saw him eventually finish between the posts and again White tapped over the goal points.
The second half was a totally different affair, as OL's learnt their lessons from earlier in the game and kept the ball away from Towcester’s bigger pack. Now playing open, running rugby, OL's ran everything back at Towcester and great handling as forwards and backs combined saw the tries come thick and fast.
Dave Wallis scored a brace, Macca added his second and Kev White went over as well as slotting three more conversions.
A good gutsy performance from the whole team and a special thanks to Reedo, for stepping in at the last minute in the unfamiliar role of No.8. In the end it was a satisfying result for the thirds and hopefully the momentum will be maintained for the foreseeable future.
report by Kev White
