Longlevens RFC

Longlevens’ 4th game of the season was against Derby Bucks away. Due to the damage caused by Storm Babet to Derby’s pitches, the game was relocated to the Derby University so we could fulfil the fixture. As this was a 3g pitch, it meant that the game would more than likely be played at a fast pace.
 
From the kick off, the assessment that this would be a fast pace game was correct, as Derby came flying out of the blocks in attack keeping Longlevens trapped in their own 22 for the first 5 minutes of the game however some great defence from Longlevens managed to hold the ball up and also win a penalty to exit our of their own 22. Longlevens then started to build into the game and started to push Derby back into their own 22. Due to this pressure Derby started to give away a few penalties. This ultimately lead to Longlevens scoring the first try of the game, after a high tackle by Derby, Alex Wade took a quick tap penalty, and managed to ride a few tackles to go over and score with Luke Pegler getting the conversion, score was now 7-0.
 
After this try, it seemed to galvanise Derby as they started to dominate the game again. A few of the Derby forwards started carrying the ball forward more and drawing in the Longlevens defence, Derby started to find holes in the Longlevens defence and some strong running by the Derby backline started to cause Longlevens problems. After a break through the middle by the Derby Fly-Half, where he broke 2 tackles, he offloaded to the Derby full back who managed to get round Connor Scantlebury but a fantastic recovery tackle by Connor managed to stop the try by Derby as he tackled him into touch just before the line. However the fullback managed to offload the ball to a supporting player, but Alex Wade had also tracked back and managed to knock the player into touch stopping a certain try. Longlevens managed to hold out for the rest of the half. Half time score was 7-0.
 
There was a quick talk from the coaches at half time, which advised that the boys needed to work even harder on the defence to stop the Derby runners breaking through the defence. Longlevens started a bit slowly after half time, and Derby started to take control of the game and like the first 5 minutes of the first half, Longlevens were unable to get out of their own 22. Like the first half however, Derby called not break down the Red Wall. Derby though they had broken through the defence, however some great defensive work led to the ball being held up. However from the resulting try line drop out, Derby managed to make good meters, and they then finally broke down the Longlevens defence going over and scoring under the posts, conversion was successful, score was now 7-7.
 
This try by Derby seemed to break the spirits of the Longlevens’ players and the game became a bit disjointed as the rhythm of the game was interrupted due to a few injuries on both sides. Longlevens however managed to pick themselves up and started to find space in the Derby defence again. After a break by Ethan O’Loughlin, he managed to get the ball to the returning Joe Costello, who made a break down the right wing but was tackled, but the ball was recycled quickly. Paul Watson made a break and whilst getting injured in the process, managed to offload the ball to Pete de Klein to carry a few tacklers with him over the try line to score Longlevens’ second try of the game under the posts with Reece Joyner getting the conversion. The last 10 minutes of the game, Derby started to throw everything at Longlevens as they were pushing to get tries to win the game, but the Longlevens defence managed to keep them at bay and after a knock on by Derby, the ref blew the final whistle. Final score was 14-7.
 
This was a great game to watch, and both teams could have won the game but credit to the boys, they managed to make up for the loss against Derby away last season, which was the only loss Longlevens had last season.

A big credit goes the lads, as the referee of the game messaged the club directly to say that the boys were a total credit to the game in every way and were a pleasure to ref.
 
Man of the match: This was given to Toby Hall. Toby is one of the newcomers to the team but has fit in really quickly and has been up there with one of the best players each week due to his workrate and tackling ability.