Bugger. Insert any number of justifiable expletives here because this was close. REALLY close. Old Leamingtonians belied their inferior league status to front up against their local rivals. Both sides played a number of first teamers, but mixed in were representatives from all reaches of the rugby hierarchy.

The games started with the referee imposing his authority early on, and Old Leamingtonians gave away a penalty in front of the sticks. Leamington duly took the points on offer. The game never really got going until the Old Leamingtonians captain was sin-binned. In this period Leamington scored another penalty but with Aaron Dudley behind the sticks, the ante was upped along with the tempo and OL’s took it to their rivals. Despite being a man down, it was Old Leamingtonians that scored the only try of the game.

Paul Salvin took his personal points tally to 90 with try number 18 of the season. The massive winger collected the ball after Tom Smith had made an initial break through, speeding through some half hearted tackles and touching down underneath the posts to a thunderous cheer from the partisan crowd. Simon Hemming took the conversion.

The changes were rung at half time, and Liam Jones took over the captaincy. The blindside, masquerading as a number eight, led from the front and his dogged harassment of anybody not wearing an Old Leamingtonian shirt earned him Barcode “Man of the Match”, his fourth of the season.

The rugby played in the second half was great entertainment. Old Leams made some breathtaking advances on the Leamington lines, the telepathic link between Simon Hemming and Dave Canning making for some truly spectacular Rugby. Colin Day demonstrated his ability to catch a pass given at near enough any speed and height, ensuring many a move that could have petered out kept its forward momentum. Jack Secher had a cracker at full-back, never letting anyone through and coming into the line well on several occasions.

Special tribute should go to Sean Boyle, coming on for a broken Andy Hemming and wiping the smirk off his opponents face within three scrums. Some people never lose it, and Sean schooled his opposite man.

Sadly, this positive play and awesome defence didn’t stop the Leamington fly-half hitting a drop goal with about two minutes to go. Did Leamington deserve this victory? No. OL’s played the better team rugby; Leamington relied on the skill of individuals to make it through the OL’s defensive line. The Leamington scrum half kept all entertained as he threw some ridiculous steps that would have had more of a place on “Strictly come Dancing”. To no effect; the line was not breached and instead they were forced to rely upon the boot.

Leamington can count themselves lucky they won today, but win they did and credit to them for supplying the points when it mattered most. Old Leams played well, special credit should go to Tom Smith, adding a balance to the centre that has perhaps been missing, and also to Mike Tattersfield playing his finest game for the senior set-up with several probing runs from deep and some good tackles.

It may seem like I am trying to make silver lining inside clouds here but we need to be able to take the positives from our defeats as well as the negatives. Some basic errors and basic gobbyness let us down today. Happily these are things that can be sorted out on the training pitch. Good try gentlemen, we’ll get them next time.....