Sat 2 Oct 2021
League rugby returned to Longford Lane on Saturday with Longlevens continuing where they left off before the Covid break, by winning at home, the last loss at home coming way back on 26th January 2019.
As is the case in local rugby the chat during the week was all about this being a tough game, based on the first week’s set of results. Frampton had beaten Hucclecote very well and Levens were expecting a tight and close affair. The weather certainly set the day up for boring ‘up the jumper’ rugby, but it was anything but.
Brad Wilkins executed a great kick off to put Levens into good field position, with Frampton struggling to clear their lines. A penalty was awarded to The Griffins on the left of the field which Wilkins duly put into the corner. Frampton were able to stop the catch and drive but the Levens pack re-grouped and played short phases towards the posts. From five metres out Matt Fatica was able to power over for the first score, converted by Wilkins making it 7-0 after five minutes.
From the kick off Levens were playing with great confidence, moving the ball wide from touchline to touchline. This stretched the Frampton defence, creating holes and space on the outside. The ball was spun to the left to Winger Sam Hester who still has lots to do. He beat three men and stepped inside to score, no conversion this time, 12-0.
Levens applied continuous pressure for the next 10 minutes, playing good, structured rugby in the right areas. A penalty was won and converted by Wilkins to make the score 15-0, with Frampton heads beginning to drop.
Such was the dominance being shown that the next two scores came from first phase possession. From a scrum centre field number 8 Fatica picked up from the base, the ball was fed to Kory Holman-Jones who made a great break. He managed to offload to full back Matt Smith who broke a tackle and outpaced the defence for the first of his three tries, 20-0.
Five minutes later an off the top lineout move released the backs on the front foot. Number 10 Joe Hoyle executed an out the back pass to Smith who again broke tackles and had too much pace for the Frampton defence to go over for his second, making the half time score 25-0.
The clear message at half time was to keep the pressure on and not think the game was already won. Unfortunately the game died out a bit and conditions worsened. Frampton didn’t look like scoring and Levens knew the bonus point was already in the bag, so the game became very disjointed. A last score was managed though, and Matt Smith became the hat-trick hero with a carbon copy of his second try. From a lineout the ball was moved out the back, tying in the Frampton defence, leaving Smith with acres of space to score his third under the posts, allowing Wilkins to convert, leaving the final score at 32-0.
This was an impressive display of running rugby, even more so considering the conditions. Momentum is now building and we look forward to next week to continue our winning ways.
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