Saxons Chalk up W up at OlL's

Saxons made the short 87 mile journey to the wrong side of Rugby this week for a first round cup tie. Conditions were poor, with a slow melancholy drizzle promising rugby of the quality to be found at the AJ Bell on a wet Friday in January…..

Saxons kicked off,Old Ls regathered and after a few phases they decided to kick the ball back. This was caught by Henry, who inexplicably decided that it was the 10 shirt rather than the 1 shirt that he had been handed in the changing room, and returned the kick. The resulting horror slice landed directly into touch, demonstrating to him that kicking really is as hard as Richmond makes it look. This led to an Old Ls line out on the 10 which was defended, and the game settled down, with both Sils and OLs having some good periods of attack.

At round the 15 minute mark Brownie was subbed off injured, leaving Saxons out of subs. Shortly after this a well worked move off the Old Ls lineout, led to a crash ball try from their 12. Saxons responded with some solid scrums and strong possession and were soon back into a good position in the Old Ls half. From here the Ball was passed out wide and found its way to Chris (Jack Nowell), who jinked through the centre of the Old Ls defence. The resulting kick was converted by Ben 'Blowe' Lowe, leaving the score at 5-7. Richmond keen to carve his name into the 6 shirt was next to go over, breaking through two tacklers, and reaching an out stretched arm to touch down, bringing the score to 5-12. Old Ls clearly aware this was a cup match struck back through an anti-rugby penalty kick from just outside the 22. This led to slightly un-Saxons looking score of 8-12.
Liam K decided that this anti-rugby would not do and so put a kick in over the Olds Ls defence, and re-gathered it in their 22. He was hauled down just before the line and offloaded to Richmond, for him to bag his second try of the game, 8 - 19. After a bit of argy-bargy Old Ls scored again and went into halftime with their tails up, with the score poised at 13 -19. Old Ls started the second half in similarly aggressive fashion going through pick and drives, eventually getting to the five metre line. Henry, keen to make up for his earlier kicking, stripped the ball and it was cleared up field by Jack Nowell, allowing the Saxons to regroup.

Sils began the long march back down field and after a succession of penalties they were rewarded with a scrum on the 5. Sils came agonisingly close to their first push over try in years, before the Ref blew up for another penalty. After a few phases, the ball found itself in Blowe’s hands, who put in some neat footwork to go over and bring the score to 13 - 26. Old Ls came back at Sils once again and won a line out on the Sils 22. At the set piece Old Ls decided to throw a telegraphed ball to their man at 2. Unfortunately for them Brad 'TLB' Stonehewer was able to reach out and pluck the ball from their jumper while remaining stood firmly on the ground. This sure footing enabled him to gather his limbs about him and begin to storm off down the pitch. TLB handed off one player and was then out of sight, bringing the score to 13 – 31. With the match won Sils were able to attack one more time, with Blowe selling a dummy and dotting down under the posts, to usher in a resounding 13-38 win for a travelling Saxons side.

MoM – TLB, Honourable mentions - Liam K, Jack Nowell.

DoD – Henry Morris for kicking. Honourable mentions – Josh Mallet – for declaring himself to be a veteran of the front row after completing 80 mins at hooker.

Not straight line outs 1 vs 2 missed Kicks.

By Henry Morris