On a sunny, crisp but decidedly chilly Sunday morning an under-strength OLs travelled to Leicester to gain experience prior to their forth-coming Welsh tour. The pitch was a little rutted and OLs took some time to settle and were quickly 3 unconverted tries down, primarily due to forward pressure by the larger Lions forwards and an unusual hesitancy in OLs defence. Then OLs decided to awake from their Sunday morning torpor and good 3/4 play by Gus and Tom led to a fine unconverted try by Luke on the right wing, followed soon afterwards by Eddie Morgan going over on the left wing which was well converted by Jack Jobling. So the impetus returned to OLs game only to be dashed by a silly fumble (ref’s opinion) on our own line that let Lions in for a converted try and a 22-12 half-time deficit.

The second half began with the usual personnel changes and OLs took a little time to re-settle which allowed Lions to produce another unconverted try after good forwards pressure-- 27-12 to the Lions. From then on OLs produced the greatest recovery since Lazarus (coach Murrells` words). First a fine backs move was completed by Ed Andrews in his new role as R wing threequarter! This was unconverted but then with just ten minutes to go OLs welcomed back Dan at full back as our super-sub just as Lions looked out on their feet.  A superb centre run followed by Gus which Tom supported for a try which Dan converted and then in the last 2 minutes an opportunistic run by Jamie generated good re-cycling by the whole team to release Dan for the winning try, which Dan duly converted. The only time OLs were ahead the whole match was the last 60 seconds and Lions were justifiably aggrieved having contributed equally to a superb morning and advertisement of all that is good in Junior Rugby.

Match Result: Leicester Lions u14  27 v 31  Old Leamingtonians u14

Tries : Luke, Eddie Morgan, Tom, Ed Andrews, Dan.

Convs : Jack, Dan (2).

Man of the Match: Gus.

Team: Ed Andrews, Max Hain, Aled Murrell, Wilf Dove, George Vetch, Joe Davidson, Alex Tawney, Amandeep Gill, Jamie Breakwell, Sam Hain,

Gus Gillespie, Tom Richards, Luke Chamberlain, Eddie Morgan, Jack Jobling, Joel Othen-Lawson, Joe Evans, James Wilkinson, Dan Mills.