Longlevens RFC

Saturday afternoon began with the sad and tragic news of the death of one of our Griffin family members, 19 year old, Alex Roberts. This news understandably affected many members of the club, particularly players in the second team who were his close friends, and our condolences go to his family and friends.

This game was played in his honour and began with a minute silence. This was the first visit in recent memory of Burnham, who were sitting just above mid table at the start of the day. The Griffins knew this would be another tough test and so it proved for the first 50 minutes. Burnham were a big side who played a limited, but effective game plan, and were hard to break down. The first half was a slow and scrappy affair, and one that only the purists would enjoy. Longlevens went in at half time 14-3 up, with tries coming from the ever-reliable Brad Wilkins and the impressive Jake Fox. Wilkins was on hand to finish off good work from Jed Holman-Jones and Tom Griffiths following a Burnham knock on, and Fox showed his pace on the left touchline, running in from 50 yards after Jack Cuthbert had broken three tackles.

As you can read there wasn’t much to say about the first half and Levens were pleased to get the half time done to try and improve the second half.

This they did with a dominant display from 1-18 and some impressive individual performances. Tom Griffiths got the half going with a great individual try, pouncing on loose ball and dummying his way through the defence to surge towards the line, 21-3.

Almost straight from the kick off the ball was played blind down the left touchline, with Wilkins and Fox combining well. Fox took a pass and seemed to be boxed in, but showing feet that Michael Flatley would be proud of as he danced his way through five opponents and sprinted clear for a great try, 28-3.

With the bonus point in the bag The Griffins seemed to relax into the game and started to play with confidence. They used the shape well and used pre planned moves. From one such move the ball was spun right for Louis Boyd to hit a good line. He was able to off load to Mike Yorke who also hit a good line to go over in the corner, 35-3.

A little bit a concentration lapse occurred and Burnham were able to go over for an unconverted try, 35-8, however, normal service was resumed straight from the kick off when Jack Cuthbert gathered and beat five to go over for a fine individual score, 42-8.

The last 10 minutes the Levens forwards began to get some gains against a tiring Burnham pack, the front row and Walsingham, Jones and Stratton were dominating the scrum and the back five of Holman-Jones, Cuthbert, Boseley, Jenkins and Philips were making yard after yard in the loose. The game was finished off with two identical tries from Steve Philips, who was on hand to finish two excellently executed catch and drives, final score 56-8.

This brought to an end the first block of five games, with a rest week next week. The team sit top of the league with five out of five and can be proud of the start they’ve made. As stated before this is a tough league with no easy games and there are some difficult places to go, but the team are confident they have what it takes at this level.