1st November – Mids 5 East (North)
Rolls-Royce 42 - 3 East Leake
Rolls-Royce welcomed East Leake to Victory Road and looked to avenge the disappointing performance from the previous week.
Skipper Ranft lost the toss and so Royces started the match with a strong wind at their backs. The opening exchanges were pretty even with a few mistakes allowing East Leake to forage in to the home team’s 22 but some strong scrummaging held them out allowing fly-half McLaughlin to clear his lines.
Within 5 minutes however, Rolls-Royce had begun to exert a dominance in all areas of the game and were pressing the East Leake try line. An indiscretion on the floor from one of the East Leake forwards resulting in a well-taken McLaughlin penalty. RR 3 – 0 EL. Royces were immediately back in to the opposition 22 with a quickly taken tap penalty in their own half and quick hands in the backs allowing space for no.8 Dan Sanderson to step inside the cover defence to touch down under the posts.
A 2nd try for Sanderson followed along with a solo effort from centre Lawrence Betty and an impressive team try finished off well by full back Duncan Myres. Fly-half McLaughlin converting 3 from 4 first half tries and adding a further 2 penalties.
Rolls-Royce rounding off an efficient 1st half at RR 35 – 0 EL.
The 2nd half was always going to be tougher in to the strong wind with skipper Ranft stressing the need to play a tighter game working hard to support the back 3 and to continue to pressure the away team in to making further mistakes.
East Leake started the half the stronger and came away from the RR 22 with a sweetly struck drop goal from their fly half. They added a further 3 points with a penalty from the RR 10m line after a lapse in discipline from the home team. RR 35 – 5 EL. The game hit a sour note with a nasty looking ankle injury to RR tight head James Hinchcliffe who was having an impressive game. Yet another front row dilemma to content with in the coming weeks.
The rest of the match was played out in the middle 3rd of the field with RR struggling to make headway in to the breeze and EL failing to break the solid home team defence. The highlight of the half was a well worked backs move resulting in man of the match Duncan Myres cutting through the EL defence like a magician’s bow saw cuts through his beautiful assistant’s torso. McLaughlin converting to make the final score Rolls-Royce 42 – 5 East Leake.
A step in the right direction for the home team who managed to put last week’s wreckage behind them. Concerns still prevail over their ability to adapt their game plan to the varying conditions with the 2nd half only being won 7-6.
Team: Myres (9 MoM), Hicks (7), Betty (8), Peacock (7), Blackhurst (7), McLaughlin (8), Poole (7), Ranft (7), Brown (8), Hinchcliffe (8), Taylor (7), Lee (8), Sanderson (8), Noble (7), Nithsdale (7) Subs: Jardine (8) (for Noble 40 mins), Gormley (7) (for Hinchcliffe 55 mins)