Longlevens RFC

First game of the new season for Longlevens MAR was a Charity game against Dowty’s raising money for MIND and Gloucester Feeds the Hungry. The day was a scorcher so every players fitness was tested in this game.

The game started as any charity game would, with players who were available dropping out last minute due to injury or no longer being available so both teams had to make changes to the starting teams. The game was split into 4 quarters.

The first quarter was dominated by Dowty’s as Longlevens struggled to get out of their own half due to constant pressure by the Dowty’s forwards and a strong back line. However the Longlevens’ defence held strong with a good shift from the back row duo of Paul Watson and Pete de Klein alongside the new Vice-Captain Ben Gardiner. Dowty’s finally broke the Longlevens line, after a few phases they got the ball wide and managed to go over to get the first score of the game, conversion scored 7-0. Dowty’s started to put more pressure on the defence, which didn’t help with the penalties that Longlevens kept giving away. Dowty’s made a few breaks for the line, however due to strong tackling from Reece Joyner and Zack Fisher, these stopped certain tries. However the pressure kept mounting and after a penalty given on the 5 metre line, Dowty’s took a quick tap and spread the ball to the wing for Jez to beat the covering defence to go over and score. Conversion was also successful, the score was now 14-0 to Dowty’s.

In the second quarter after a few changes by Longlevens, they started making breaks and finding gaps in the Dowty’s defence. However during one of these runs, Alex Wade came up against Longlevens MAR player but captain for the day for Dowty’s, Jez Wilson, which led to a nasty collision in which Alex would get a nasty cut on his head and would not return for the rest of the game. Longlevens had chances in the quarter to level the game up, however the cutting edge was not there and a few errors meant that the end of the second quarter and the half it was 14-0 to Dowty’s.

The coaches at half time advised the players to go through the system that we have been working on in training as they were still in the match and only just behind. However at the start of the 3rd quarter, as it was the first game of the season and as it was very hot, the fitness levels dropped by Longlevens. The inside centre for Dowty’s, Paddy McAllister, started pulling the strings and took advantage of the tiring defence and was finding gaps. This led to 2 quick tries from Dowty’s, bringing the score to 24-0 as both conversions were missed. After this, Longlevens started to string some good phases together and increased the intensity but were not able to score before the end of the quarter.

Before the start of the 4th quarter, the coaches advised to keep up the intensity that was shown at the end of the 3rd quarter and get some scores on the board. However Dowty’s were the next team to score after some more line breaks from Paddy McAllister. This lead to a final try from Dowty’s, bringing the score to 29-0. Longlevens’ finally clicked after this and managed to score 3 unanswered tries. The first was from a line out on the 10 metre line. Longlevens won the lineout and an inside ball from Fly Half Shane to Winger, Sam Galliers, beat 4 defenders to go under the posts and score. Sam has got his own conversion so the score was now 29-7 to Dowty’s. The next try game after a chip through from Shane Daley, Jair Fountain gathered the ball and passed to Pete De Klein who whilst being tackled offloaded the ball to Shane to go over and scored, conversion missed. The final try of the game came just before the final whistle. A cross field kick by Zack Fisher was caught by debutant Sam Meds who beat 3 defenders and passed the ball to Jack Giles to sprint past the covering defence to score. Conversion was missed. Final score was 29-17 to Dowty’s.

It was a fantastic game with things that Longlevens will need to work on before their next game against Walcot Warriors at home on 23rd September.

Man of the Match: This was voted by Dowty’s, which was given to Shane Daley. Special mention goes to George Stubbs and Reece Joyner for their performances and for never giving up despite a few heads dropping. Special mention also goes to Sam Meds and Toby who both made their debuts for Longlevens. Both have played rugby before but not for a while so was good to see them back out on the pitch and impressing.