Longlevens RFC

Longlevens signed off the 23-24 season in style with a victory at HQ in glorious sunshine. This was a day to remember for the Griffins as they put in a great performance to win the Counties 1 Championship and play at Twickenham.

Four coaches full of players and supporters headed off to Twickenham at 8.45 and arrived at a sun-drenched stadium already hosting the first game of the day. The players took in the atmosphere before heading to the changing rooms to get ready for the team photo. After a brief warm up in the car park they headed out through the famous tunnel and on to the pitch.

Although not full to capacity there was plenty of noise to inspire the players and they used that to start the game at a great pace.

Good phases were put together by the griffins and they were making good yards into the Widnes defence. Matt Smith in particular was making inroads and worrying the Widnes backline. The first score of the day came after eight minutes following good build up play by the forwards. They battered the line before the ball was moved wide for James Butler to weave over, unconverted, 5-0.

The next score came five minutes later and it was a fine finish from Matt Smith. Possession went back and forth for a few minutes and the ball ended up in Ben Collier’s hands on the narrow blind side. He broke two tackles before being tackled himself on the 22. Widnes managed to win the ball back but kicked poorly away to Brad Wilkins, who passed inside the dangerous Smith. He stepped off his left and powered through a gap to go under the posts in style to bring the score to 12-0.

Widnes than came back into the game and put together some good phases in the Longlevens 22. They worked their way to the line with one out runners and used their big prop to power over from short range, 12-7. It didn’t take long for the Griffins to respond though as they scored a third on the half hour. A penalty kick to the corner set up the drive five metre out, but Widnes did well to stop it. The ball was then worked infield to Jake Fox who did well before play switched blind to Steve Phillips to barrel over for a good score on his 200^th game, 17-7.

The half was finished with a Brad Wilkins penalty to see the Griffins go in at half time 20-7 up. The boys looked in total control during the first half and hopes were high of a repeat during the final 40.

It was a hot day and the energy seemed to sap out of both teams for the first 20 minutes of the half, however, to their credit, Widnes then started to come alive and make a game of it. They were moving the ball well out of the tackle and managed to get a second score down the left through their pacey centre, bringing the score to 20-12 to set up a tight finish to the game.

With nerves starting to shred the Griffins took back control and went through some phases that brought them to the Widnes 22. Strong running from Cuthbert in particular enabled possession to get to Tom Griffiths, who threaded a lovely kick through for Tom Barton to show pace and bravery to pounce on and score in the corner, bringing some daylight between the scores, 25-12.

The match clock was saying 80 minutes at this point but the ref had other ideas and Widnes kicked off to attempt to close the gap. From seemingly nothing their replacement number 18 managed to evade tired Longlevens defenders and ghost through to score from far out to make the last minutes a tense affair at 25-19. Luckily though the griffins held out and captain Griffiths kicked the ball out to thunderous applause.

This was a great game to watch and one worthy of the venue. Each and every one of the 22 man squad did the club proud and deserved the adulation that followed.

This capped another fine season for Longlevens and one that will be remembered for years to come. The target at the start of the season was promotion, winning the Papa Johns cup at Twickenham, and retaining the Combination Cup. Two out of three isn’t bad and we look forward to next season in Regional 2 Severn, our highest ever level, against some new teams and some local rivals.