Kirkby Lonsdale 19
Lymm 13

On an overcast day, in light drizzle, Lymm travelled to South Cumbria to take on a team that was recovering from a significant loss to league leaders Hull the week before. The form book indicated Lymm might just edge this contest but that was before a depleted, injury-hit squad from Lymm and a resurgent KL side was taken into account.

Pre-match discussion had centred on the possibility of the Lymm scrum dominating the KL pack and perhaps this would make the difference. Certainly Lymm looked more powerful upfront and KL were looking relatively callow in certain positions but the collective will was to prove too much for the visitors.

Lymm started brightly enough, spreading the ball wide in the first few minutes, searching for the breakthrough. Well, it came but in the opposite direction. First team debutant and Sale Sharks academy centre young James Rooney sensed an overlap but an interception by the KL fly-half Dave Barton, while James was trying to put the outside man away, resulted in a try under the sticks and a 7-0 lead for the hosts. Welcome to first team rugby James but, from that moment he responded well to this set-back.

From the outset Lymm seemed fractious and unsettled. This continued as a thread throughout the game and was to prove their undoing. KL meanwhile stepped up to the challenge, full of running, breaking tackles and generally looking the better side. However, this enthusiasm was generating lots of penalties against the home side and the ref, although fair throughout, seemed to have his eye on KL, having refereed them the week before. Some previous form perhaps? A stern warning to the captain was indeed the prequel to two yellow cards but, as the score line suggests, Lymm failed to take full advantage when the hosts were down to fourteen men for twenty minutes of the match.

A penalty after 15mins, allowed Full back Cormac Nolan to make the score 7-3 and some reward for a level of competence. Meanwhile Lymm had two clearing kicks charged down and were failing to fire on all cylinders. A chip through from KL nearly extended their lead but the ball went agonisingly dead. That fly half Barton was at it again after 23 mins when he spotted a gap and put his considerable frame through it to score under the posts from a remarkable 50m out. 14-3 and Lymm were shell shocked.

Lymm took the initiative knowing they have been in worse positions, and started to take on the KL pack. However, a forward pass here and knock-on there kept stalling any momentum as KL absorbed everything Lymm were throwing at them, with some stern tackling. No 8 Oli Higginson started to show his class and led from the front, bursting through tackles and generally making a nuisance of himself. Back row Ali Sutherland, who has been a great contributor all season, damaged a shoulder after 34 mins, replaced by the considerable presence of Zak Lythgoe.

As the half came to a close a sustained Lymm attack was defended well until Oli got hold of the ball 20m out on the left and rode a number of tackles before reaching the line to touch down. The conversion was missed taking the half time score to 14-8 and all to play for. This had been a poor, dysfunctional half from a team that was clearly bedding in new combinations.
The large crowd fell silent as Lymm, with renewed enthusiasm started the second half full of intent and were duly rewarded. A rolling maul wide out on the right from an attacking 5m line out, gave hooker, Cash Chilvers the opportunity to burst over, making it 14-13 after 44mins, but the conversion and lead were not taken.

Now it was KL’s turn to try a couple of penalty shots but neither side’s kickers seemed to have the right boots on. Perhaps they had swapped them before kick-off. Lymm then slipped back into malfunction mode with passes going to ground and attacks stalling due the poor execution. KL sensed blood and following a sustained attack eventually crossed the whitewash for a match winning score of 19-13.
As Captain Adam Bray was to comment later, and here he is quoted verbatim, “It was a match we should have won!” That moment came when Oli Higginson once more burst through down the right wing with the full back to beat. The support was coming but the final pass did not go to hand and replacement fly half Tom Shard fumbled the awkward ball with the line at his mercy. If it could go wrong for Lymm it sort of did and this was compounded by Oli badly injuring his knee in this attack and being replaced.

This seemed to take any wind there might have been out of Lymm’s sails and confidence visibly drained away. Going for the killer score KL camped on Lymm’s line but could not cross it. This was a poor performance from Lymm, lit up occasionally by pieces of individual brilliance, but this is a team game and combined with good game management, KL had the edge in both departments.

“A really disappointing performance from Lymm, compounded by the horrific injury to Oli Higginson” commented Head Coach Adam Fletcher. “We made far too many mistakes, didn’t work hard enough in defence and made poor decisions throughout the game.

“Oli is in Warrington Hospital. At the moment they don’t know the full extent of the injury but he has a fractured Tibia and some knee damage. He will probably be kept in before undergoing surgery on his leg on Monday.

“Some good news was the debut of 17yr old Senior Colt, James Rooney. James was brilliant and fitted in perfectly. He has a great rugby future ahead of him. Hopefully we will have him playing in a Lymm shirt a few more times this season.

“The boys are disappointed and keen to rectify the performance. We can’t keep giving teams an early advantage and expect to overhaul them. I’ve challenged them to turn it around for our home match against Vale of Lune next Saturday”

Teamsheet