1st TEAM Match Report

SATURDAY 4^th OCTOBER 2003

LEAGUE ; MIDLANDS 3 EAST (South)

LUTTERWORTH 1^st XV 35 OLD NORTHAMPTONIANS 1^ST XV 14

Lutterworth make it three from three in Midlands Three after this exciting clash with previously unbeaten Old Northamptonians. Skipper and wing forward, Dennis Hall notched up another four tries to take his tally so far this season to thirteen.

Lutterworth came out of the blocks at full pace, the Northampton pack found themselves, like many others, overwhelmed by the power and presence of the home side forwards. O. N’s initially soaked up the pressure but after twenty minutes a great individual break through by hooker, Paul Riley gave Lutterworth a penalty in front of the posts, easily converted by Tim Jeffs. Lutterworth’s and Dennis Hall’s first try came when he picked up the ball and went over from the base of a scrum, one of many that was utterly dominated by the home side pack. Hall quickly scored again from a lineout catch and drive. At this point O.N’s looked out for the count but despite the inability of their forwards to establish any sort of platform for attack the pace and skill of their backs, in particular fly half, Adam Civil and centre, Mark Turney, took Lutterworth by surprise by way of two converted tries in rapid succession. The Ashby Lane side were surprised to find themselves trailing by one point, however another lineout catch and drive taken over by Hall gave them a half time lead of 18 to 14.

The second period, on paper, belonged to Lutterworth with 17 more unanswered points. Jim Croucher and Lee Donovan showed clinical finishing to score one try each, fittingly Dennis Hall applied the coup de grace with yet another touch down from the lineout. However the real highlight of the second period was the defensive skill of the Lutterworth backs against periods of brilliant running by O.N’s. Full back, Dave Simpkin took the man of the match award with a blistering display of text book tackling. On four occasions Simpkin was the only man between O.N’s and the try line, his cool head saved Lutterworth some embarrassment in a game which they were always going to win.