THAT WINNING FEELING – LIONS GAIN FIRST LEAGUE VICTORY OF THE SEASON

SWINTON LIONS 28

MIDLANDS HURRICANES 10

IAN RIGG Heywood Road Sunday

The Lions secured their first victory of the season running in five tries to defeat the Hurricanes in a pulsating end to end game. It had everything with some great defence on show also from the Lions holding out the visitor’s time after time. It was early pressure from the Lions after Jordy Gibson had been hit late in an early attack. Hurricanes had a chance on eleven minutes when Aidan McGowan broke free, but Louie Roberts halted his progress. Jon Luke-Kirby had a great chance five minutes later but knocked on near the line. Then they forced a goal line drop out but the Lions defence held them out again, and in fact it was the home side who took the lead on twenty-one minutes when some good build up play saw Gibson go over on the left and Reece Briers converted. Hurricanes hit back three minutes later when Lewis Else broke through a tackle to score under the posts and Sully Medforth converted. The Lions were quickly back in the lead when Briers caught a crash ball from Gibson to go over on the left and he added his own conversion. Hurricanes had some good pressure just before the break and it took more heroic defence to keep them out. Ryan Johnson had a great chance just after the break for Hurricanes, but he was grounded short. Kibula and Medfprth then had good chances for their respective sides before Tom Ratchford produced a moment of magic to score an excellent solo try but Briers was off target with the conversion. More chances for Hurricanes with Isaac Shaw and Brandon Moore going close again being thwarted by the tackles. The Lions forced a goal line drop out on sixty-seven minutes and from the kick the Lions put pressure on the line which saw Josh Eaves dart over by the posts and Briers added the simple conversion. The restart did not go the ten metres which put the Lions back on the attack and from this pressure on the line it was Eaves who put out a nice short pass to send Fin Yates in by the posts and again Briers added the simple conversion. Hurricanes were not lying down and kept attacking the Lions line and their endurance paid off with three minutes left when a good passing move saw Todd Horner make the best of a huge overlap to score in the right corner, but Else who had taken over the kicking was wide with his conversion.

MATCHFACTS

LIONS

1 Louie Roberts

34 Pat Ah Van

33 Dante Morley-Samuels

32 Kieran Taylor

24 Ethan Fitzgerald

6 Reece Briers

36 Jordy Gibson

22 Jordan Brown

9 Josh Eaves

10 Ben Killan