Syston 14 – 19 Lymm
1st Team Match Report | Saturday February 14 2026
Lymm back to winning ways
Given the extremely wet weather endured by large parts of the country, it was no surprise that Lymm’s away fixture at Syston was in doubt until the very last moment. A pitch inspection at 4 pm on Friday had proved inconclusive and it was only on Saturday morning, as the Lymm squad was on the bus to Leicestershire, that the match finally got the green light. It was no surprise either that a rather lush, heavy pitch greeted the players on their arrival – albeit the cloudless sky and weak February sunshine did make conditions more palatable.
Lymm players, coaches and spectators knew that this was a hugely important game in their season, having won only one of their previous six matches, which had caused a drift down the league table to 11th. Syston, whilst sitting bottom of the table, had shown much better performances at home having won 3 of their last 4 and run other teams close. Lymm made 4 changes to their squad from last time out, bringing in Alfie Simpson, Ben Thompson, Tom Elphick and Andy Williams, the latter for the first time this season, increasing to 42 the number of players Lymm had called on in the current campaign.
Lymm kicked off and very soon the different tactics of the two teams became apparent, with Lymm prepared to drive at the middle of the Syston defence, whilst Syston were much more willing to move the ball wide and use what they clearly believed to be their strength in the wider channels. Whilst, given the conditions, it was clear that both teams would put boot to ball more frequently than usual, again there were differences here with Lymm, in the main, putting the ball in the air for field position and to force errors in the Syston defence; whilst Syston seemed to favour a chip over the advancing Lymm defensive line to create opportunities given the ball difficult ground conditions. Errors were also inevitably likely to feature – indeed Lymm enjoyed three scrum feeds in the first 7 minutes from Syston errors. The Lymm scrum had looked solid on their own ball and when, on 8 minutes, Syston had their first scrum feed, the Lymm pack showed their intent by destroying the Syston scrum and winning a penalty – a rare thing for Lymm in the first half, when they seem to infringe far too often.
A Rhys Lilly take from a line out on halfway, was converted into a hugely effective driving maul, which took Lymm to the Syston 22. The ball was then fed back to Cal Morris, who put in a testing cross field kick towards the lefthand corner. The difficult kick was made even more challenging for the Syston winger to deal with as Paddy Jennings bore down on him, resulting in a Lymm 5m scrum. The ball secured, the Lymm dominant scrum trundled forward to give Oli Higginson the simplest of touchdowns. Simpson’s conversion meant that Lymm were ahead 0-7 after 13 minutes.
Shortly afterwards, Lymm were awarded another 5m scrum and for all the money it seemed that a similar outcome would be on the cards. However, this time Lymm moved the ball from the scrum and despite a number of valiant attempts failed to cross the line, with the inevitable error then allowing Syston to clear their lines.
On 23 minutes, a soft penalty against Lymm on halfway for failing to retreat to the referee’s liking, allowed Syston to move deep into Lymm territory. Some enterprising handling and strong running by both backs and forwards eventually allowed Number 8 Ed James to force his way over just to the right of the uprights, which full-back Carroll converted easily. Back to parity 7-7.
Morris then made an outstanding break from just inside his own half, through the heart of the Syston defence. With support players either side of him, he elected to kick towards Jennings’ wing but despite his teammate’s best efforts the Syston winger was able to just get to the ball first to diffuse the threat. A real chance for Lymm which they should have done better with for sure.
As the half headed towards a close though, Carroll missed with a simple looking penalty from 25m out, straight in front of the posts. A clear let off for the visitors.
Half Time: Syston 7 – 7 Lymm
The half time reflections were that Lymm really needed to do something to stem the penalty awards against them, which had given Syston huge advantages in terms of both possession and field position – one of the consequences of which was that Lymm had probably had to put in more than twice the number of tackles that the home side. The question now was the extent to which, in the conditions, this herculean defensive effort would impact fitness and stamina as the match wore on.
From the start of the second half, it seemed that Lymm’s half-time talk had done wonders, as they were quickly awarded a series of penalties. This put enormous pressure on Syston as their defence was tested time and time again. A try claimed by Lymm from short range was denied by the referee after consultation with his assistant; then Morris made another outstanding break, fed Lilly in support who, in turn linked with Nathan Beesely. On the home AGP the Lymm flyer would have no doubt strolled in to score under the posts, but in the heavy going he was hauled down just short as his offload found the grateful arms of a Syston defender rather than a teammate, with a drop out from under the posts the outcome. The restart was charged down by James Pitcher and, once again, Syston were under the cosh. Again, Lymm thought they had scored with the unsighted referee once again denying the score after consulting his assistant. At this point Syston prop Sam Wright was yellow carded and Lymm were awarded another penalty. Lymm opted for the scrum with Higginson feeding Morris who dummied a couple of times before forcing his way over to score by the posts. Simpson added the extras to put Lymm back in front 7-14 after 53 minutes.
Lymm then showed that they could play the wide game moving the ball across the pitch a couple of times with first Beesley then Joe Heaton making good yards on the right and left flanks respectively. The latter was halted by a high tackle, earning another Syston prop, Archie Coldicott a 10-minute breather. A kick to the corner from penalty award and Pitcher was the beneficiary from the catch and drive scoring 10m in from the left-hand touch for an unconverted try. 7-19 after 59 minutes.
Lymm continued to dominate large parts of the final quarter but, frustratingly, were unable to score a fourth, bonus-point, try. As the match headed towards its finish, Syston did, at last, enjoy some possession and field position being rewarded in the final minute with a try for winger Austin Nevitt who chased down a kick over the Lymm defence, Carroll expertly converting from the touchline.
Full Time: Syston 14 – 19 Lymm
After the match, Head Coach Andy Davies said:
“On a heavy pitch, we knew yesterday wasn’t going to be about free flowing rugby, it was going to be down to who could win the territory battle and paly rugby in the opposition 22. We did it in patches in the first half, but I thought the boys executed the game plan really well in the second half.”
“There were some gritty performances in the pack and some outstanding defensive sets which was really pleasing to see. We now need to keep this momentum going throughout this week for a big game next week at home.”
Team: Ben Lilley (37); James Pitcher* (107); Dal Ngoma (13); James Yates* (151); Ben Thompson (64); Rhys Lilly* (88); Josh Hadland (c)* (76); Oli Higginson* (296); Cal Morris (81); Alfie Simpson* (51); Paddy Jennings* (96); Joe Heaton* (14); Ste Pilkington* (99); Jack Stride* (34); Nathan Beesley*(c) (102).
Bench: Joe Higgins* (36); Tom Elphick (3); Max Ure* (13); Tom Manaton (42); Andy Williams* (26).
( ) = number of Lymm First XV League appearances
* Former Lymm Academy/M&J player
Referee: Peter Connor
Matc Report: Andy Leach
Lymm’s next fixture is on Saturday 24th February 2026 when they host Old Redcliffians from Bristol at Crouchley Lane, KO 2:30.