LONG EATON RFC 15 ROLLS ROYCE 0

Saturday saw the arrival of Rolls Royce RFC to West Park for the first home league fixture of the season. The line up slightly changed from last week’s victory with the welcome return of Atu (our famous Fijian) at Scrum Half and Bobby Reece at Tight Head Prop. Long Eaton ran out for this match up in front of a decent home crowd and sporting a very smart new kit. The pressure was on to give a performance that matched their appearance.

The game began frantically with LE setting a high tempo with clear intentions to the opposition. It wasn’t long before a move from the backs drew out a penalty from RR giving Gary Sumpter a chance to open the scoring from about 35 yards. The kick sailed a fraction wide and LE repositioned themselves.

The game restarted with LE immediately on the attack with good link up play between the backs, and excellent support play from the forwards with Ben Whiting making a nuisance of himself amongst the opposing ranks. The pressure continued and it wasn’t long before Flanker Dave Moore exploited a gap in the RR defence with a good strong run over the line for the first try of the game. Sumpter missed the conversion yet again by a fraction but it was just a matter of time as 10 minutes later LE were awarded another penalty. The Fullback made no mistake impressively kicking from 25 yards to open his own account.

The action continued immediately as the LE forwards pressed hard and gained ground forcing RR to leave gaps. They were made to pay with a fantastic individual try from Atu, his agility allowing him to bend around at least 3 players and smash another before charging over. There were no mistakes as Sumpter converted for maximum points.

Halftime came as a disappointment for LE who were clearly getting into there stride.

The second half began and immediately looked a completely different game as RR began to apply some attacking pressure of their own. They were extremely unlucky in that they were playing against an LE side with true belief in themselves. This was reflected with some fantastic back to the wall defensive play with tackles flying in all over the park. LE desperately needed to get a foothold on the game in order to protect their slender lead. That they did with the speedy Josh Newton leaving everyone in his wake as he motored over the line only for it to be disallowed.

Next up to be disappointed was the flying winger Iain McKenzie who was on the end of a superb move that began with influential Fly half Ryan Beresford. Deemed a forward pass the try didn’t count. Shortly afterwards Fullback Sumpter was to be denied a score with a great interception and 60 yard sprint over the line.

With the game at 15-0 LE defended like lions to preserve their lead with RR throwing the lot at the defending team but to no avail. After a scoreless second half the game finally ended with a few relieved sighs from the sidelines.

To summarise, LE showed that they had built on the previous week’s performance with a strong display of defensive prowess and an appetite to attack and exploit opposition’s weaknesses. Past seasons have seen LE drop precious points when slender leads have been allowed to slip, but this side showed a steely strength in defence against a side that has just dropped out of the league above.

Long Eaton will now look on to the next fixture against Ollerton with relish as they attempt to take another important step toward their goal.

John Higgins

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