Leicester Lions 24/25 season

A strong Lions side for the match at Westleigh Park with Charlie Davies and Tom Threlfall from Leicester Tigers and Toby Cousins from Northampton Saints re-joining the squad. Theo Mannion also continues hid loan from Coventry, so should be a match for any Bristol loans in the Dings squad.

Match report from the Lions
The Lions were unable to make it three wins in a row despite a strong performance away from home against 5th place Blackheath.
The home side started the stronger, despite playing against a strong breeze, and it took several strong defensive efforts from the the Lions to prevent a score. Blackheath finally broke the deadlock on 19 minutes when hooker Billy Harding broke off from a strong maul to score out wide (5-0).
The rest of the first half was relatively even but a lack of accuracy with the ball, and strong defence, from both sides meant neither side created any clear cut chances.

Arguably the first half was a somewhat tame affair but the second period was anything but. The Lions came out firing and with their first attack of the half sent the ball wide directly from a lineout in their own half which released Toby Cousins who beat his opposite number on the outside and then outstripped the Blackheath cover to score an outstanding solo try. Tom Threlfall converted to give the Lions the lead (5-7).
Blackheath responded almost straight away with an Oli Burgess penalty, to put Blackheath back in front, but this didn't last long as Cousins made another break from deep in Lions territory. When the ball was recycled a clever kick through from Threlfall was collected by Jake Sterland to score his 9th try of the season (8-12).
Three minutes later, and Cousins was on the run again to conclude 9 minutes of attacking brilliance from the Lions. From deep in their own territory the Lions moved the ball wide and Cousins, having worked off his right wing to receive a neat shoulder ball from Charlie Davies on the left flank, broke through and outstripped the cover once again to score another sublime individual try. Threlfall was on target with the conversion to give the Lions a decent lead (8-19).
The Lions were in complete control of the contest at this point and were running the home side ragged, so could be forgiven for continuing to attack, especially as they were against the breeze in the second half. However, when trying to attack from deep again on 59 minutes the ball was turned over in midfield and Blackheath exploited the disorganised Lions defence to score through winger Jake Lloyd. Burgess converted to bring the home side right back in to the contest (15-19).
When an awful-looking tip tackle resulted in a yellow card for Blackheath with 15 minutes to go it looked as though the Lions had victory well within their grasp. 18 year old scrum half Charlie Bemand came on to make his debut and alongside Tom Threlfall and Luke Bouchier, who had come on for Charlie Davies, he was controlling the ball and field possession well.
With only a few minutes remaining on the clock Toby Cousins appeared to taken a very high shot that wasn't spotted by the officials. To make matters even worse Aaron Pope was then penalised for a very soft high tackle. Burgess found an excellent kick to touch five-metres out and although the home side overthrew the lineout, they won it at the back and were able to sneak over after a number of pick-and-go phases. Burgess converted. (22-19)
With just 90 seconds left on the clock Blackheath won the kick off and were able to maintain possession for the remaining time before kicking the ball out to break Lions hearts.

Head coach Gareth Collins commented: ''I'm gutted with the result obviously but I'm really proud of the performance. Blackheath are a really good side and at times today we really had them on the ropes. We came here with the intent to attack and although we didn't quite manage that first half we certainly did in the second. We actually controlled the last period really maturely as well but unfortunately a couple of decisions have gone against us towards the death and that was the difference between winning and losing.''