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1st TEAM   Match Report

Saturday 26th January 2008

League Match

Northampton Casuals 1st : 13pts  V  LUTTERWORTH  1st : 5pts 

Weather:- Bright, Dry, with a swirling crosswind.

Lutterworth fielded a young side with Tom Hooper making his First Team debut joining his brother Ben who played his first game last week. After two stirring but unsuccessful performances Lutterworth had high hopes of returning to winning ways against Northampton Casuals who had only two wins from fourteen games.

Lutterworth kicked off with a difficult wind against them and found themselves in their own 22 for most of the first 15 minutes and defended very well to keep Casuals at bay. Lutterworths formidable pack, though generally getting the best of the early encounters, did not manage to dominate completely as they usually do. They still managed to perform admirably and gave the scrum-half time the time to provide a good service at the base of the scrum.  After an excursion round most of the back positions Jez Bell returned to his familiar number nine shirt and showed his ability to give quick ball to release his young backs.

Under pressure Lutterworth conceded a penalty that was duly converted.  This was followed by a good period of play by the whole away team.  Due to the strong and unreliable wind both teams tended to kick to the corner and not go for very difficult points.  Tom Hooper soon got into the swing of this and gained valuable ground.  The visiting backs soon made their power felt driving over for an unconverted try, the ball being grounded by Riley who continued his superb form of the last few weeks.

The referee seemed to be giving decisions that neither side were happy with and Casuals lost a man to the sin bin but, despite being a man up, it was Lutterworth that came under pressure that resulted in an unconverted try by Casuals No 8.

The second half kicked of in the same rather dour vein though Tom Hooper showed great tenacity in chasing a penetrating kick in to Casuals half. Offences and knock-ons gave scrums and kicks to both sides.  Casuals then went over for an identical try to their earlier one but in the opposite corner. Throughout the match Dennis Hall showed his class, though despite a lot of hard work, the side failed to show the cohesion that has been evident in the last few weeks.  This could be down to players not being familiar with each other or the experience left on the bench.  The match ended in a 13-5 victory to Casuals and Lutterworth must hope to return to winning ways against Leicester Forest in a fortnight.

 Team:

                                       Wilford          Riley            Stevens

                                                Evans               Gregory

                                    Bailey               Hall                     Conway

                                                               Bell

                                                          T Hooper

                        Stretton          Nolan               Randall            Prince

                                                           B Hooper

Replacements:-      Croucher,   Court,   Williams.