Longlevens RFC

Longlevens travelled down to Wiltshire last Saturday for their first visit to Trowbridge. The facilities at Trowbridge were excellent and the pitch was perfect for The Griffins brand of rugby.

Longlevens had the better of the opening exchanges and put Trowbridge on the back foot. Fast phases and good structure allowed them to get in the right parts of the pitch and draw penalties. The decision beforehand was to take every point on offer and Brad Wilkins duly slotted three penalties in the opening half hour.

Crucially, The Griffins were unable to capitalise on this good start and were unable to cross the line, despite making chances. Jack Cuthbert came close with a powerful carry and Isaac Meredith had the line in sight, but the ball just wouldn’t stick.

Defensively Longlevens were resolute in the first half and it was unfortunate that they allowed Trowbridge in at the corner to finish the half at 5-9.

The first quarter of an hour of the second half was the turning point in the game. Trowbridge came out the stronger and began to dominate. They scored a good try through their forwards five minutes in and this was followed up by a failure to gather a kick through directly from the KO. This mistake led to another try and all of a sudden, The Griffins found themselves 19-9 down.

The killer blow came 10 minutes later when Trowbridge moved the ball wide to score and condemn Longlevens to a 26-9 deficit.

With the game now seemingly gone The Griffins started throwing the ball about. Playing with more freedom, they were stretching the Trowbridge defence and managed to get on the outside to allow Jaiden Vance to scorch in on the left, followed soon after by Meredith to bring the scores to 26-21 and suddenly a chance to win it.

From the kick off, and with five minutes remaining, Longlevens launched another attack only to be halted by the referee’s whistle. From just inside the Longlevens half Trowbridge decided to go for three points to widen the gap. Their winger stepped up and slotted from 45 metres and effectively took the game away from The Griffins at 29-21.

In the end this was a game that could’ve been won. Chances weren’t taken and too many mistakes were made. The Griffins need to be more accurate and ruthless at times and these tight games will go our way.

Next week we travel to Drybrook for a Gloucestershire derby hoping to upset their promotion ambitions, #UTFG.