Sat 9 Nov 2024
After a week away from league action Longlevens made the trip to the picturesque village of Stow-on-the-Wold for this Regional 2 Severn clash.
With England playing Australia at Twickenham player availability was lower than usual, but such is the strength in depth at the club, the Griffins still fielded a very strong and competent side to take on a Stow team that is very strong at home.
Unfortunately, the game started poorly for Longlevens with Stow making far too many metres through the tackle and getting easy territory. They scored first after only five minutes to make it 5-0 but the Griffins managed to get one back through Jake Fox soon after to briefly go into the lead at 5-7.
Longlevens then had a difficult period where they conceded two more tries in the space of five minutes to find themselves 19-7 down after only 20 minutes. To their credit they showed determination and began to get a foothold into the game, and they were making solid yards with big runners such as Jed Holman-Jones, Tom Denby and Jack Cuthbert, with the latter being the one to power over on the stroke of half time to make it 19-14 at the break to instil some confidence.
A good old-fashioned talking to at half time seemed to do the trick and the Griffins started more brightly, although Stow were the first to score points from the boot, 22-14.
The next try went to Longlevens and it was finished in some style by Isaac Meredith. He received the ball on the left wing with plenty to do to get past the Stow defence. He handed the first man off and then powered through the next to steam in at the corner, 22-19.
Such was the theme to this game that Stow then snuck another try to extend their lead to 27-19, but this wasn’t to last long as Holman-Jones capped a fine performance to power over for a five pointer, followed soon after by a three pointer from the boot of James Butler, to bring the score to 27 a piece.
The Griffins then thought they’d sewn up victory as Meredith went in for another fine score to make it 27-34 and all they had to do was see out the remaining few minutes. However, Stow had other ideas. As Longlevens went looking for a score to put the nail in the coffin, a Stow defender managed to intercept the final pass. He made 50 metres up the pitch and the following phases put Stow into a good position near the line. Longlevens defended well but eventually ran out of numbers and a try was scored under the posts, followed by the inevitable conversion, 34-34.
Depending on whether you’re a glass half full or half empty person will determine if this was three points gained on the road, or two points lost. An argument could be had for both but the Griffins will be disappointed not to have got all five points.
Next week sees the big local derby when we welcome Old Cents to Longford Lane for the first time in many years in the league, #UTFG.
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