MIDLANDS HURRICANES 38

SWINTON LIONS 26

IAN RIGG            Alexander Stadium        Sunday

The Lions went down to their first defeat to the Hurricanes in the Birmingham sunshine with a large following of fans travelling down the M6. Former Lion Matty Chrimes put Hurricanes ahead on eight minutes when he dived in at the corner despite the best efforts of Conrad Hurrell to knock him into touch, but he could not convert. The Lions hit back on sixteen minutes when Hurrell offloaded to the supporting Will Roberts and as he was ankle tapped near the line, he managed to get the pass out to Tommy Porter who scored under the posts and Dan Abram converted. Ten minutes later they were in again when George Roby exploited a gap in the defence to cut through and score under the posts with Abram again converting. The other former Lion Luis Roberts crossed in the right corner for their second try on the half hour but again no conversion from this. Dan Abram stretched the Lions lead on the stroke of half time with a penalty goal after Hurricanes Zeus Silk was sent to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle.

Hurricanes came out with determination in the second half and Luis Roberts made a seventy-metre break for the line but a great cover tackle from Frank Sergent stopped him just short. The next try came soon after this when Tom Wilkinson scored on the right and Chrimes hit his first conversion to level the scores. Gav Rodden was sent to the sin bin on fifty-four minutes and Hurricanes made most of the extra man scoring twice in four minutes with Ellis Hobson and Ross Oakes both going over with both being converted by Chrimes. The Lions were not lying down and hit back again on sixty-four minutes when Will Roberts found a gap to score and Abram converted to put the Lions within six points, but Chrimes then added his second five minutes later and added the conversion. The game was going from end to end and with four minutes left Rodden knocked away to defenders to score on the left and Abram converted again, and it was game on, but with only seconds left Hurricanes cemented the victory when Jon-Luke Kirby scored on the left and Chrimes converted as the hooter sounded.

LIONS: Dan Abram, Frank Sergent, Conrad Hurrell, Ellis Anderson, Harry Higham, Will Roberts, Jack Stevens, Adam Sidlow, Tommy Porter, Alfie Sinclair, Gav Rodden, Jake Davies, Kenny Baker. SUBS: George Roby, Jordan Brown, Bobby Shingler, Aaron Lynch

Referee:  Geoffrey Poumes (France)      Penalty count: 5-5         Attendance: 623            H-T: 8-14

***  Photo Credits –  MKS Sports Photography ***