Longlevens RFC

Longlevens endured a murderous afternoon at Midsomer on Saturday, succumbing to their first defeat of the season by a solitary point.

The old adage ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’ would sum up this defeat perfectly. A combination of a late night and arriving 20 minutes before kick off certainly didn’t help matters, but credit to Midsomer Norton, Longlevens just weren’t at the races and they deserved their victory.

This wasn’t an enjoyable game to watch at all and both sides started very scrappily. Norton were on the score sheet first through a Ben Taylor penalty before continuous pressure from the Griffins resulted in a try from captain, Jed Holman-Jones.  The ball was worked to the right and good phases were completed, Holman-Jones cut a great line back against the grain and powered over for a converted try, 3-7.

Levens were started to look good at this point and were confident of another score to take control of the game, however straight from the kick off a failure to clear their lines spelled disaster. Instead of kicking, the ball was spun left in their own 22, resulting in handling errors that turned possession over and allowed the Norton winger to gather and go over for a converted try of their own, 10-7. This is how the half ended and stern words were had by all during the huddle.

The boys responded well and were gaining dominance at the scrum. The Norton front row were under all sorts of pressure but the ref wasn’t seeing any penalty infringements. From a scrum in the Norton 22 the Levens pack were able to get a good shove on and number 8 Steve Philips picked at the base to blast over for another converted try, 10-14.

The Griffins were seemingly in control but poor decisions allowed Norton to gain territory and possession. On 65 minutes Norton had a scrum and weren’t really making much ground. Their 10 attempted a chip through that looked like it would be gathered by the Levens defence, however Norton 13 Hugh Jeffery managed to win the footrace and score against the run of play to shock Levens and take the score to 15-14.

Confidence was still quite high and victory was still in sight. Number 10 Tom Griffiths got them back into the game with a very good show and go that resulted in him crashing over, conversion crucially missed by Brad Wilkins, 15-19.

Again, some poor decisions allowed Norton a foothold and they managed to get down the other end of the pitch. They played some short phases and secured possession near the line to set up the pick and go. Stern defence held out for two phases before their hooker, Mitch Rose, flopped over for an unconverted try, 20-19.

The missed conversion gave the Griffins a glimmer of hope and with a superior set piece and a top-quality goal kicker in Brad Wilkins, all was not yet lost. From a scrum just outside the 22 on the left the all-important penalty was awarded. A decision needed to be made, do we scrum again, kick to the corner to set the drive or go for goal. All three decisions were valid and either one could have provided victory. The decision to kick at goal was taken, which wasn’t a bad one considering Brad’s ability; however, it wasn’t meant to be and his kick sailed just wide to give notion the victory.

This defeat will be a wake-up call and was maybe needed to get the players focused on improving their performance and efforts, to their credit each player knew they hadn’t performed and are aware of the need to improve for next week. Onwards and upwards.