Luctonians 19 - Westoe 23
Feb
WESTOE emerged from this full-bloodied battle with a heap of credit as well as the victory points (writes Clive Crickmer).
After some less than convincing performances in recent games, director of rugby Andy Howells had urged his team to be “in their face” aggressive to regain the assertiveness that had marked their play before Christmas.
And how Gareth Nesbit’s men responded, which was just as well against spirited, fierce-tackling opponents who - like Westoe - regard it as an affront to be beaten on their home patch.
In fact, the Shieldsmen, who have now moved up a place to second top of National 2 North, are the only one of the division’s leading four teams to have come away unscathed; Fylde, Loughborough Students and Leicester Lions all having their colours lowered.
That they gave just that bit more than they got was all the more commendable coming as it did after a 260-mile coach trip requiring a pre-dawn start to reach Luctonians’ ground just this side of the Welsh border near Leominster.
Small wonder that Howells enthused: “This was a splendidly resolute performance against a team who were every bit as dangerous as we had been led to expect them to be in front of their own crowd.
“There are not many teams who will come away with from Luctonians a win in the bag. They came at us very hard, especially in the second half, but our work rate was tremendous and we dominated the scrummaging.”
League leaders Fylde’s 29-17 victory against visitors Loughborough means the students have slipped below Dunes Adventure Island-sponsored Westoe into joint third spot with Leicester.
But there is a significant 11-point gap between them and Caldy who are currently the best of the rest.
The only shadow over Westoe’s performance was that top try scoring centre James Clark limped off in the 32nd minute with a recurrence of the hamstring injury which kept him out of the two previous games and could sideline him again for a month.
An odd feature of the game was that both sides fared the better while playing against a stiff breeze blowing straight down the field.
Westoe had the upper hand in the first half when, with the wind in their faces, they ran in three tries to lead 17-12 at half time, all the host’s points being from John Morris penalties.
In the 5th minute fly half Mark Bedworth gathered the ball from a maul and darted over near the posts, converting it himself.
Quarter of an hour later his penalty kick found touch 8 metres from the home try line and a strong drive from the lineout ended with Raymie Elliott crashing over.
And just before the interval the tight head prop scored a second carbon copy try after lock John Younghusband had stolen a Luctonian throw-in mid-way in their 22.
The home team came storming back after the resumption and quickly took the lead when a flowing move from inside their own half ended with winger Pete Smith sprinting over, Morris converting.
And although they continued to press, Westoe were equal to it and penalty kicks by Bedworth in the 48th and 53rd minutes were enough to make them only this second side this season to leave Mortimer Park with a win under their belt.
*Winger Daniel Rundle’s speed was the decisive factor in the Seconds’ 24-15 win in their Candy League clash with an impressive Northern XV at Wood Terrace.
Ever a menace, he twice outran defenders to touch down in a hard, evenly-fought game played at a good pace throughout. Other tries were scored by flanker Rob Lamb and number 8 Ryan Foster with fly half Chris Hitchcock converting twice.
