Shipston lose out to Old Leams

The boys played on their first team pitch and for the first half had the wind in their favour.

The game started at great pace and the first 25 minutes were frenetic. Old Leamingtonians (OLs) had the majority of possession and territory. Shipston tackled hard and were robust in defence. Eventually however OLs were rewarded for their constant pressure with a try in the corner. 5-0.

Shippo lacked some of their normal composure and were regularly on the wrong side of the ref, particularly at the line out which meant they weren’t able to action their set moves.

They finally found their way into the opposition half and a penalty on the 22 saw George Hendy go over in the corner. He then slotted a quite superb conversion to make the score 5-7

OLs made ground quickly from the restart and scored a very classy individual try. 10-7

Shipston were finding it hard work in the scrum and the frustration was showing across the pitch with the boys struggling to work together to make ground. The kicking battle was also not falling in our favour.

At half time some very tired boys came in to the middle and Jack D, Will and Alex made way for Charlie B, Adam and we welcomed back Charlie Yates after a long break from the team.

The second half started a little more evenly with play moving up and down the pitch. However OLs cleared their lines and ran onto the ball to score under the posts.

After the restart things moved to the scrum which looked a lot more stable in the second half. The ball moved out and Shipston started to look like the team we are used to watching. Joe made a thundering run up to the pitch and was denied a try, the ball moved out to Charlie Yates who flew in for the ref to decide it had been held up. Characteristically the boys showed their determination and from a scrum George shipped the ball out to Henry who was not going to be stopped and went over at some pace to score under the posts. George H converted to make the score 17-14.

OLs replied with another try to make the final score 22-14

There was much to take heart from today. Zack was demon in the line out stealing ball in the air 5 times, determination and resilience abounded in every player, Alistair had a very good day at the office both in attack and impressively in defence. Harrison’s work rate was immense, defence was the core of today’s game and the whole team stood tall, Archie was relentless and tackled his heart out. We learnt a lot and it was good preparation for the next few weeks. The rest of the season is set to be exciting!