Longlevens RFC

In our second home game of the season we faced a familiar foe in Cardiff Chiefs, each game we play them is a close and physical affair and this game was no different from the rest. Longlevens were looking at making it 4 wins from 4 for the senior teams at the club after the 1sts, 2nds and Colts all were victorious on the weekend. Before kick-off, it was agreed that the game would be split into 4 quarters of 20 mins.

At the start of the first quarter, the game started at a fast pace with both teams have good spells of attack but not able to make anything from it. The first score came through Cardiff, who after a few good phases and a few missed tackles by Longlevens, Cardiff went over. Conversion was missed. 5-0 to Cardiff. Whilst under the sticks, captain Shane Daley rallied the lads and advised what we had been working on in training and to bring it into the game. Shortly after the kick off, Longlevens won a penalty and kicked to the corner. After a few phases, the ball was passed to Ian who broke 2 tackles to go over and score Longlevens’ first try. Conversion was also missed. 5-5 was now the score. The rest of the quarter the teams we trading penalties which led to a bit of a stalemate. End of the first quarter was 5-5.

In the second quarter, a few loose kicks by Longlevens led to Cardiff having a lot of possession. The fullback and outside centre from Cardiff were having quite a big influence on the game as each time they had the ball the managed to beat a few defenders leading to good field position but some ill discipline by Cardiff led to turnover in position. Longlevens had an attacking line out on Cardiff’s 5 metre line however the lineout was lost and Cardiff countered, getting the ball to their outside centre who beat 3 defenders to run the length of the pitch and score. However the conversion was missed. Score was now 10-5 which stayed the same until half time.

After a chat at half time, which again was about focusing on what we have worked on in training, Longlevens started brightly and had quite a few chances to score but a mixture of good defence and lacking the cutting edge meant that the field position was capitalised on. After some good attacking play by Longlevens at the end of the 3rd quarter, Connor Scantlebury snipped from the ruck, spotting a gap and going in under the posts, conversion scored. Score at the end of the third quarter was now 12-10.

In the final quarter, both teams started to tire and a few injuries happened. The game went a bit scrappy after this with both teams giving away a few penalties and missing tackles. After Longlevens were judged to be holding on, a lack of discipline led to Longlevens being marched another 10 metres back but they didn’t get back onside leading to a yellow card, meaning for the last 10 minutes of the quarter, Longlevens were down to 14 men. This led to Cardiff having more space out wide which they took advantage of multiple times but could not finish off the chances. In the last play of the game, in an attacking position, Cardiff gave away a penalty, which gave the ball back to Longlevens. The resulting penalty was tapped then kicked into touch to the end the game 12-10 to Longlevens.

Either team could have won the game and both teams should be proud of the performance that they both put in. We are looking forward to the return fixture in May. Our next match is on 19th February at home in the return fixture against Derby Bucks, and the boys will be out for revenge as they are the only team that has beaten them this season.

Man of the Match – Ian Hobbs was voted Man of the Match by Cardiff, due to always being available to take the ball into contact and always made metres and scored his first try for Longlevens.