Lions Struggle at Veseyans

Back to the League this week but still without a number of key players through injury and absence so this was a tough game against an experienced pack and mobile backs. Bringing in veteran Simon Crouch at lock and with a revamped front and back row the Lions made it to half time only a point behind but fell away in the second half against the slope and the elements to lose 32-14 and fall to 8th in the League.

The home side scored after 5 mins with an unconverted try. The Lions fought manfully and put together several promising attacks, with Owen Williams again prominent at 10. In defence the efforts of Rich Pennock stemmed the home tide where he was supported by Alex Gormley and Remi Blake. Despite this the home side went further ahead near half-time with a penalty goal for an 8-0 lead, but a fine move less than 2 mins later gave the Lions a try by Marc Merran near the posts, converted by Owen Williams. The score remained 8-7 at half time.

Against a strong wind and the slope in the second half, however, the Lions began to tire against almost constant attacks for the first 20 mins of the half. In that period 3 more tries were conceded, 2 converted. Though the Lions tackled and tackled the powerful Veseyans pack began to exert more pressure and the Lions’ scrum went backwards. One of the home tries came from a succession of missed tackles down the middle as the Lions’ defensive communication and organisation began to crumble.

Credit to the visitors though; with a minute to go and 32-7 down a dangerous aerial tackle on Ben Jeavons-Fellows, who again impressed when he came on, led to a sin-binning for a home forward and a penalty 30 metres out from the home line. Courageously the Lions ran it and gained a small measure of reward for their efforts with a good Alex Gormley try on the left after consistent ball carrying across the pitch. A brilliant conversion wide out against the wind by Williams gave the Lions some pride back at 32-14.

Everyone knows where the problems lie at present – selection difficulties due to injury and cry-offs hasn’t helped the last couple of weeks. However, as some players said after the game, there isn’t enough communication at the breakdown in defence and routine tackles are being missed. In the second half 11 tackles were missed, some of them crucial.

There were a number of good performances against Veseyans but with the half-way point of the season rapidly approaching there needs to be some self-searching by players if the Lions are to get away from the bottom half of the table and emulate last season. There are only 2-3 teams for a full Lions squad to really worry about and, with injured players returning over the next few weeks more is expected.

JON DEWS