LEICESTER LIONS 41 BEVERLEY
19
This was an extraordinary
match. Despite having all the play in
the second half and achieving almost complete control up front Beverley somehow
managed to concede twenty eight second half points and comprehensively lose a
match they might easily have won.
The first half was a close
affair. Leicester with the best backline
Beverley have faced his season stormed away from the start and in the early
stages played havoc with their elusive running.
But the Beverley defence was excellent and after twenty minutes all Leicester had to show for their domination were two
penalties from fly half Jon Boden. The early home dominance began to fade and
Beverley were increasingly getting back into it when they lost possession at a
lineout and Leicester broke away from halfway for lock Austin Watts to go over
for a try which Boden converted.
13-0 down at halftime Beverley were by no means out of it and the game could still have
gone either way. They came out for the
second half with all guns blazing and their pack immediately drove powerfully
into the home 22. Slick passing to the
wing would have brought a try but instead of quick ball through the hands a
long wafted miss-pass in midfield was easily intercepted by winger Anthony Lintern and Beverley, instead of closing the gap to six
points, found themselves twenty points behind as Lintern
raced away for a converted try.
This left Beverley with a steep
hill to climb. Yet they proceeded to
play some of their best rugby of the season as they came back strongly. Phil Duboulay at full back and Umberto Cuozzo
and Anthony Spence on the wings all had outstanding games in both defence and
attack and showed what Beverley might be capable of if only they attempted to
play expansive rugby a bit more often.
The problem was again in midfield where it was all rather ponderous and
lacking the pace and incisiveness of the home backs. A lovely break by David Worrall set up a try
for Matthew Tamali’i which Duboulay converted to bring Beverley back into
contention and when the ball was moved across the backline from a lineout on
halfway Duboulay sent Cuozzo racing in from forty metres for Beverley’s best
try of the season.
20-12 and all
to play for. By now the Beverley
forwards with James Armitage and Patrick Pole invariably to the fore were well
on top and providing plenty of good ball for the
backs. Gavin Gibson, on for the injured
Craig Hancock, was back at his best in the lineouts,
several times winning the ball on Leicester’s throw, and in the loose Worrall
seemed to be everywhere.
But with quarter of an hour to
go it all suddenly fell apart.
Carelessness and poor defending down the middle let Leicester
in for three more giveaway tries, two from Lintern
and one from full back Richard Moore with Boden
converting all three. It was all against
the run of play and heartbreaking for the Beverley forwards who had given so
much. But the home backs had the speed
and ability to capitalise on their opponents’ mistakes and they could not be begrudged
their late flurry of points. Beverley did
get over for a final well taken try by Richard Henderson which Duboulay
converted to bring a sense of justice to the final score, but in the end the clear
lesson once again for Beverley was that if you make basic errors at this level
you will get severely punished for it.
