Longlevens RFC

Longlevens MAR had their first game since the World Cup Triumph in Pamplona back in June, against a tough side in Melksham Stags.

Melksham had a lot of the ball for the first few minutes of the game as Longlevens struggled to get into their World Cup winning rhythm, which was down to the great defence and pressure put on them by Melksham. Longlevens however were the first team to get on the scoresheet. After a few a phases on the try line, Elliot Fortey shifted the ball out to Zack Fisher who ran past 2 defenders to go over and score with Luke Pegler getting the conversion. Despite this, Longlevens were trying to force things to work but this led to the ball being dropped a few times. At the water break the coaches went through and said to slow down, use the structure and chances will come. Not long after this Longlevens managed to get 2 tries shortly after each other, through Ethan O’Loughlin and Jordan Rankinwoodhouse, both conversions converted by Zack and by Jordan. Melksham scored the next try, after a few penalties given by Longlevens allowed a quick tap which was passed to their Centre who went over to score. Longlevens nearly had another try before half time however after running the length of the pitch, Ethan tried to offload it to Zach Jones but this was knocked on over the try line. Half time score was 21-7.

After half time Longlevens were the first team to score as Zach Jones picked from the bottom of the ruck and went over to score, conversion however was missed. Melksham got the next score however this conversion was also missed. Longlevens managed to score the next 3 tries to put the game out of reach with 2 of these being converted. Adam Letts scoring on his debut for the team, Ronan Ludlow after sprinting past 2 defenders to go over and score and Zack Fisher with his second of the game.

In the final play of the game Melksham managed to get the final try after a great run by Harvey, including a goose step round the fullback to go in under the posts and score and convert his own try.

Final score Melksham 19-45 Longlevens

It was a great game in which both teams played very well but Longlevens showed why they were World Champions by being clinical in the final third of the pitch.

Next game for Longlevens is a home match on 20th September against Dragons