Leicester Lions 24/25 season

The Lions took a very young and inexperienced squad to last years third place finishers in National One for what was a very tough encounter. In fact 11 of the match day squad of 21 were making their debut for the Lions, 9 of whom are still teenagers.Given this scenario it was no surprise that the Rosslyn Park side, stacked with Premiership and Championship experience, took control early on. The Lions showed their naivety, playing in the wrong areas of the pitch, and their errors were continuously punished by the opposition. The Lions went in at half time 36-0 down having barely had an attacking set of their own.Credit must go to the young Lions though who grew in to the game second half and gave as good as they got. Suddenly they were moving the ball around the way the Lions supporters have come accustomed to of recent years and the side showed what they can do. In fact honours were even for the second half, two tries apiece.As is the nature of the relationship with our Premiership neighbours, Leicester Tigers, the young players from last season will now be moved on to further their careers but the door now opens up for a new crop of future stars. 18 year old fly-half Tom Threlfall understandably took some time to settle but once he did he showed some very classy touches, including a pinpoint cross field kick for James Stubbs to score. Henry Mountford proved himself very capable in the front row and George Pearson looks like a really exciting back three prospect. A number of other new players stood out on the day. Hooker Arthur Allen, signed from Boroughmuir Bears in Scotland, was very busy round the park and was rewarded with a try from a driving maul (a rare sight for the Lions supporters last season). Also Joey Britton impressed, playing 80 minutes in the back row and making a number of strong carries and tackles. Clearly the work being put in by the new forwards coaches George Richardson and Sam Lockwood is paying dividends.A number of other young players, second rows Ben Almond and Mack Welsh, prop Liam Burrows and 18 year old scrum half Ollie Bunce, showed real promise and will have benefitted no end from the exposure of this level.Head coach Gareth Collins reflected afterwards: ''We don't place any importance on the result of a pre-season game. We knew we had a huge turnover of players this summer and would be coming in to the season with a really young group so we decided to play Rosslyn Park as we knew that they would enable our players to see what level we need to get to. They are a great side who play fast and wide and they were excellent at times today. Our boys will have learnt a lot and we're happy with some of the outcomes of the processes we've been trying to put in place this summer. We've got a lot of work to do but seeing as some of those lads have only done one or two sessions with us so far we're in a good place to build from.' '

The Lions' next a final pre-season game is at home to Luctonians on 31st August. 2pm kick off. Free entry.