SWINTON LIONS 54 MIDLANDS HURRICANES 22

17 July 2022

IAN RIGG Heywood Road, Sunday

The Lions produced a nine try performance against a Hurricanes side who never gave up in the trying conditions to keep up with the front runners. Mike Butt almost opened the scoring for the Lions on six minutes when he chased his own kick over the line, but the ball just ran away from him, but three minutes Hurricanes lost Brad Clavering to the sin-bin for an illegal tackle on Lewis Charnock. While he was in the sin-bin the Lions made the most of the extra man when firstly Lewis Else sent out a lovely pass for Mitch Cox to score on the left and Dan Abram converted. George Roby was causing lots of headaches for the Hurricanes defence, and he spotted a gap to score by the posts on sixteen minutes again converted and three minutes later a good passing movement was finished when Roby darted over for his second and Abram again was on target. Hurricanes were playing some good rugby throwing the ball around nicely and this paid off on twenty-three minutes when Matty Welham took a Ben Stead to step inside two defenders and score on the right, but Stead could not add the conversion. Richard Lepori was sent to the sinbin for discent a minute from the break when he disputed a decision and his absence allowed Hurricanes to grab their second try just before the half time hooter when Kieron Lawton went over in the left corner and Stead converted.

Both sides started the second half well with Jayden Hatton going close for the Lions and then the Hurricanes causing the Lions defence to scramble to keep them out. The try of the match came on fifty-one minutes when Jack Hansen kicked through the defence and regathered to sidestep Elliot Hall before scoring under the posts and again the conversion was good. Hurricanes hit back straight away when Stead side stepped his way through some missed tackles to score under the posts and convert. They should have scored again a few minutes later but the pass from Stead went wide of his attackers. The Lions then hit a purple patch when firstly Lepori scored chasing an Else kick across the attacking line and then Nick Gregson chipped the defence to regather and score on the right and with then minutes left Butt set up a try for Lewis Hatton and all three were converted. Again Hurricanes were not lying down and scored a nice try when George Collins chipped over the top and regathered to feed the supporting Elliot Hall who scored under the posts with seven minutes left but it was the Lions who finished strongly when Roby darted over again after Lewis Hatton had gone close and it the final minute he made it four for the day when he again spotted a gap by the posts to dive in from short range and Abram converted both to tackle his side past the half century and put them in good stead for the long trip to Cornwall next week.

MATCHFACTS

LIONS

  1 Dan Abram

  2 Mike Butt

  4 Max Roberts

28 Jayden Hatton

  5 Richard Lepori

  6 Lewis Else

  7 Jack Hansen

15 Louis Brogan

30 George Roby

10 Lewis Hatton

11 Rhodri Lloyd

12 Mitch Cox

25 Lewis Charnock

Subs (all used)

14 Matty Wilkinson

17 Jack Spencer

15 Billy Brickhill

13 Nick Gregson

Tries: Cox (11), Roby (16,19,76,79), Hansen (51), Lepori (60), Gregson (66), L.Hatton (69)

Goals: Abram 9/9

Sinbin: Lepori (37) Discent

HURRICANES

  1 Elliot Hall

  2 Kieron Lawton

  3 Matty Welham

  4 Liam Welham

  5 Elliot Wallis

  6 George Collins

  7 Ben Stead

  8 Brad Clavering

  9 Elliott Windley

10 Peter Ryan

11 Sam Bowring

17 Nathan Newbound

13 Tyler Walton

Subs (all used)

23 Chris Cullimore

15 Jack Dawson

25 David Weetman

12 Jordan Bull

Tries: M.Welham (23), Stead (55), Hall (73)

Goals: Stead 2/3

Sinbin: Clavering (9) illegal tackle

Penalty count: 8-3 Half-time: 18-10

Referee: Mike Mannifield

SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0,12-0,18-0,18-4,18-10,24-10,24-16,30-16,42-16,42-22,48-22,54-22