L&Y 1st XV
Matches
Sat 23 Apr 2022
Lowestoft & Yarmouth Rugby Club
L&Y 1st XV
Tries: R Monk, L Smedley
10
5
Stowmarket 2
L&Y 1stXV - 10, Stowmarket 2ndXV - 5

L&Y 1stXV - 10, Stowmarket 2ndXV - 5

Matthew Jary29 Apr 2022 - 12:57
Share via
FacebookTwitter
https://www.lyrugby.club/teams

L&Y squeeze the win in a thrilling match.

This was the final match of the season for L&Y 1stXV and arguably their best performance of the whole season. This was a key game in the Greene King IPA Eastern Counties Plate, which is Phase 2 of the four EC1 main leagues for all the 3rd and 4th placed teams. With a bonus point win L&Y would have been uncatchable as Plate Winners but they now have to wait for the administrators to decide whether to deduct points from Shelford IIIs from earlier cancelled matches.

Stowmarket have had a successful season this year with their 1stXV gaining promotion to London 1 North, and they also had a mathematical chance to challenge for the top of this Plate table. Their 1stXV did not have a game and it was to their credit they did not load this team with too many senior players, although they travelled with a coach load of support and certainly fielded a strong team with plenty of London2N experience.

L&Y had a few familiar faces unavailable, with vice captain Kyle Hallam, powerful centre Alex Marshall. and giant prop Jordy Yates all injured, plus Brett Thomas at work and top points scorer Oscar Anderson away in Greece. However, the depth of the squad has grown over the season and invaluable players like Chris Burt, Jake Gouldby, Nick Coules and Josh Beamish had to sit out while the likes of Tom Zirbel, Frazer Lemmon, Kieran Williams, Louis Smedley and Reece Monk forced their way into selection. Callam Barber made himself available before a 12 hour night shift, to add muscle to the second row alongside strong-running Alfie Webber. Andy Harding stood in again for Anderson at scrum half, and league player Zirbel continued steering the ship at 10 after impressing in the past few weeks. Coach Richard Henwood gambled on new recruit Kieran Williams at 15 but was rewarded tenfold by a man-of-the-match performance from the powerful Welshman, including the "tackle-of-the-season" when things were desperate in the second half. Ethan Harrowven, soon to be departing for Australia, and so exciting to watch at 15 all season, had to settle for a cameo from the bench.

The game itself was very evenly matched and immensely competitive throughout. Stow generally had the best of the scrummages and even managed to pressure and steal several L&Y lineouts, but L&Y looked the more dangerous in attack and dominated the phase play and defence. L&Y didn't concede a penalty in the first quarter and they threatened to break through on a number of occassions as Webber, captain Ray Hauraki, Smedley and Williams all threatened the line while Zirbel and Joe Brighty distributed well in midfield.

On 17 minutes, Harding and Zirbel spotted space to the left just outside their 22 and Brighty quickly found Smedley on the wing. The speedster managed to bounce off his opposite number and take off down the pitch, only to be remarkably caught from behind in a few paces from the recovered lightning-fast Stow winger. As he went down, a beautiful offload found Monk on a brilliant support line and he beat the cover 40m to the line. In the strong sidewind Zirbel was unable to convert but L&Y still took their narrow 5 point advantage to halftime.

It was more of the same into the second period, but Stow had realised they had a potential advantage if they could release their winger in space so were aiming most attacks his way. Early in the half, he skipped down the left and Monk produced a try-saving tackle in the corner, then on 50 minutes, after a period of dominant scrums inside the L&Y 22, Stow worked a set piece move left and he dotted down in the corner to even the scores. Only a few minutes later the visitors again worked their danger man into space on the left and he took off down the touchline from halfway but this time fullback and rear-gunner Williams produced a phenomenal textbook cover tackle with both players at full pace cannoning him into touch and, sadly for Stowmarket, out of the game. Immediately afterwards the galvanised L&Y defence showed immense patience and pride to win the ball from a Stow set of attacks and Zirbel cleared their lines to halfway.

From here, L&Y attacked wide right and back left with Harrowven, on for Tom Lawler, Williams and Smedley all making ground. Hauraki and his pack drove hard in the left hand corner and eventually Alfie Tiffen looked to have dived over only to adjudged to knock-on. The Stow fly-half kicked long to Smedley and this time the deceptive winger managed to jink through and theatrically dive over the line for the deciding score. With 10 minutes left, L&Y had to survive a series of attacks but weren't seriously troubled and closed out the game admirably to some raucous cheers from the large home crowd.

All in all, a worthy match to bring to a close a successful season for the team and the club in general after their Colts won some silverware at Crusaders and the 2nd XV made it through to the Norfolk finals next weekend.

Match details

Match date

Sat 23 Apr 2022

Kickoff

15:00

Location

Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Main Club Sponsor - Towergate Insurance
Main Club Sponsors - Waveney Insurance Brokers
Dug-out sponsor - Ivy House County Hotel
Kit Sponsor - Barn 1 Caldecott
Kit Sponsor - Bar 1 Gorleston