Longlevens RFC

Longlevens long awaited debut in the new Counties 1 Western North League finally arrived this Saturday. This is the first time level 7 rugby has been achieved at the club and it will be a trip into the unknown for players who have only played rugby in Gloucestershire. That being said, Saturday’s opposition were from just down the road in Cheltenham so some familiarity was present.

The afternoon began with team photos to show off the new kit, kindly supplied by our sponsors, which consisted of new shirts, shorts and warm up tops, followed by a thorough warm up in the September sun.

Longlevens welcomed one new player into the starting line-up, Louis Boyd, who is a student at Hartpury and one returning player, Tom Griffiths, who has re-joined the club after a successful spell playing the professional game at Saracens and Newport Gwent Dragons. Both fitted in well and contributed positively to the already impressive roster.

The game started at a decent pace with both sides keen to throw the ball about. The first try came Leven’s way following a catch and drive lineout set. The maul was driven to the 22 and scrum half Brad Wilkins looked to work the blind side. He dummied a pass right and evaded the cover to go over to the right of the posts. He missed a fairly simple conversion, but would then go on to have a perfect day with the boot.

The next score came from North, who were dangerous all day with loose ball. From a kick out by Levens they fielded and worked the ball left against the grain. This caught the Levens defence narrow and their very quick imported winger was able to scorch in, 5-5.

Levens then began to play with more control, and Griffiths at 10 was able to pull the strings. From some phases in the middle of the park the ball was worked left to winger Jake Fox. He showed his pace and excellent potential to beat the first tackle and sprint clear, 12-5.

The next score came from prop Oliver Deacon, who was on hand from short range to finish a backs moves that started with a lineout on the right, 19-5. The half was then finished off by a try from Sam Oliver who benefited from an excellent delayed pass from Griffiths who gave him the space to go over, half time 26-5.

The half time talk was positive, but it was recognised that there was lots more left in the tank and the boys needed to be more clinical.

The first try of the half came after some scrappy phases from Levens. The ball was eventually worked towards the North line and prop Josh Stratton was able to carry short into the corner to squeeze in, 33-5.

Space was opening up in the disjointed North defence now and flanker Jack Cuthbert took a pass in midfield. Showing the skills of a centre, he executed a show and go and ghosted through the defence to canter clear, 40-5.

Fly half Griffiths was himself finding more space and was able to make some darts of his own. From one such occasion he was able to make a break and feed Fox to sprint clear for his second, Fox showing he has great potential at first team level, 47-5.

Indiscipline then started to creep in and yellow cards began to be shown, Steve Philips for a late tackle and Josh Lyons for a knock on. This enabled North’s Pacific Islanders to exploit the extra space and play some great offloads to score two tries during the 10-minute sin bin, making the score 47-17.

Once back to a full complement of players the boys were able to settle and play to the structures, finishing the day with two more tries, one long range through captain Jed Holman-Jones, who was playing his 200^th game and lastly a second for Sam Oliver, final score 61-17.

This was a good performance, but with plenty of room for improvement. It was good to see new players, returning players and players back from injury. Steve Philips carried well and will no doubt get even better with more match fitness.