Pre season Friendly

Following the trial match involving both 1st team and development team players last week against Bourneville, the Lions took a trimmed down squad to National 2 North side Sheffield Tigers. However with a number of 1st team regulars from the 19/20 season still missing the squad again involved a number of the development squad. In the absence of captain Ollie Tapscott and vice-captain Ollie Taylor, Devon Constant led the Lions for the first time.

The early exchanges saw the Tigers dominate possession although resolute defence kept them pinned in their own half. Two penalties led to a 5m lineout though and the Sheffield outfit drove over from a rolling maul for the first score of the day. 5-0.

The Lions responded positively though and looked threatening as they attacked wide. Following a series of attacks that got the Lions in to the Tigers' 22, it was the captain Constant who got the Lions on the scoreboard with a powerful pick and go from the back of a ruck in the corner. 5-5.

Both sides struggled to win clean lineout ball in the first half but it was from a rare clean take that the Lions launched an attack. Ethan Godefroy provided the ball from the lineout, Luke Veebel hit up in midfield and following an uncharacteristic Johnny Murdoch carry, fly-half Cameron Coates found blind-side Constant who drew the defence and fed Alex WilHuckleberryson. The full-back showed great footwork to turn the covering defence inside out and create space for new signing Jake Sterland to hand-off his opposite number and run in at the corner. 5-10.

The Lions attack was now firing and it was second row Ed Sumpter who broke the Sheffield line following an offload from Coates who was starting to control the game. Sumpter drew the fullback and found scrum half James Stubbs on a good supporting line who had the pace to finish off another slick move. 5-15.

Head Coach Gareth Collins made a number of changes for the second half, giving opportunity to a number of development players. Sheffield dominated possession and territory but the Lions defended stoutly, conceding only one converted try following sustained pressure on The Lions' line. Final score 12-15.

There were a lot of positive signs for this young Lions side. New signings Isaac Thompson, Zach Bean and Jake Sterland all made positive contributions and development player, Cameron Boyd, had a fine game on the back row. Two further development players, Augy Clark and Ben Duke, and two former development players who have progressed to the first team squad, Henry Martin and Will Helliwell, all came off the bench to claim valuable experience. The Lions' next game, the season opener away at Redruth, on 4th September will be a very difficult challenge but with some senior players still to return things are looking good.

Team: 1. McNaughton 2. Taylor-Walker 3. Thompson 4. Godefroy 5. Sumpter 6. Boyd 7. Murdoch 8. Cairns 9. Stubbs 10. Coates 11. Constant (c) 12. Veebel 13. Bean 14. Sterland 15. WilHuckleberryson 16. Clark 17. Murray 18. Smit 19. H. Martin 20. Duke 21. Hare 22. Helliwell