After the disappointment of not playing last week, another larger Lions squad made the short journey down the road to play Lakenham Union 2’s in the 'second' first game of the season!

Lakenham had 14 players, so Norwich lent them a player in both halves.  

Despite confidence and team moral at a high, the Lions found themselves 12 – 0 early in the first half, with Tries from Jack A and Steele (conversions by Charlie P) the Lions went in at half time 17 – 14 down.

In the second half the Lions had worked out Lakenham and adjusted their gameplan accordingly and to great effect.

For most of the second half it was one-way traffic by Norwich as their fitness also showed over the 80mins.

Second half tries from; Patryk, Steele (2nd), Alfie, Jack A (2nd), Steele (3rd for his hat-trick) and Patryk (2nd) (conversions by Charlie P), Lakenham managed to pull a late try back with minutes to go.

The final score Lakenham Union 2’s 22 – 48 Norwich Lions.

Man of the Match = Steel for his hat trick.

As a bit of fun, the guys were told to bring an item beginning with the letter “L”. with items ranging from lemons, leads, a lava-lamp, to ladders and yes! Lube too.

Corin wrote a Lions limerick – 

In the scrum there’s Dom, Furness and Mak

There’s some fleet-footed boys in the backs

The man at the reins is Jonathan Payne

We’re the Lions, and we’re on the attack!  

Just off the A1270 There’s a wonderful place you can go

There’s sport and there’s beer and there’s men of good cheer

So why don’t you come say hello?  

Next weekend sees the Lions back at home as they take on Crusaders 2’s at 3pm along with the 1st XV at home to Woodford.

New players of all abilities are always welcome to join the friendly pride!

Matt Kent - Manager

Graham Furness's report as follows:

This was the Lion’s first game of the season after last week’s game was called off. What a change from last season, a full team with 6 subs.

We loaned Lakenham a player as they were a man short, thank you Corin.

Lakenham played a forward based game, which was to their strength. Norwich just couldn’t get the ball out to the backs to implement their game plan.

A series of penalties saw Lakenham on the Norwich 22 line and a drive saw Lakenham go over and convert. Lakenham hit again and got another forwards try out wide. No conversion. 12 – 0.

Finally after about 25 minutes, Norwich worked the ball wide to Jack Austin who scored under the posts. Charlie Proffit converted.  12 – 7.

Shortly afterwards moved the ball swiftly through 5 pairs of hands, the final pass is to the flying Steele who streaked down the wing to score under the posts. Charlie converted. 12 – 14.

The end of the first half saw Lakenham scoring again from a scrum, a runner from the pack going over out wide. No conversion. 17 – 14. Half Time.

From the Lakenham restart Patyrk collected and out ran through the defence to score near the flag. No conversion. 17 – 19.

Lakenham applied pressure on the Norwich line but a great clear out by Tiarnan Murphy saw Newton Spinks emerge with the ball. He played in Alfie Barnes who released Mak Dorsett who in turn gave the ball to Steele Kebble who scores. No conversion 17 – 24.

Norwich grew in confidence at this point. Luke Furness broke out and the ball ended up with Alfie who scored, Charlie converted. 17 – 31. The next try saw the backs combining with Patyrk playing in Jack Austin for his second try. Charlie converts. 17 – 38.

Steele added another try shortly afterwards going over for his Hat trick. No conversion. 17 – 43. A great break by Lewis Tomlinson was ended just short of the line. However shortly afterwards Norwich, played the ball through multiple hands for Patyrk to score his second. No conversion. 17 – 48

Lakenham got the last try, another pack effort with Denzil Dube going over in the corner. 22 – 48.
Full Time

This was a pleasing victory as we made life hard for ourselves for much of the first half but once we found our rhythm, we played some good team rugby. Our pack held up well against heavier and more experienced opposition. The lineout worked well and the back line was lively and clever with some well worked moves.

Credit must go to Lakenham Union who had the better of the first half and competed well throughout but as we know all too well, a tough game is harder when you don’t have options from the bench.

Thanks go to the referee and the staff in the clubhouse for their hospitality.

Well done to all the Lions.
Man of the Match : Steele Kebble
Dick of the Day : Lewis Tomlinson (missed chances)

Team (in number order 1 – 15)
Reuben Smy, Ollie Youngs,Dom M-S, Ollie Whipp, Newton Spinks, Tiarnan Murphy, Luke Furness, Mak Dorsett, Alfie Barnes, Jonathan Payne, Steele Kebble, Lewis Tomlinson, Jack Austin, James Worsfold, Charlie Proffit

Subs. (all used). Joe Bisset, Tyler Westgate, Corin Child, Fyn Young s, Patyrk Golebiowski, Harvey Wilson.
Graham Furness