Sat 11 Nov 2023
This weekend, Old Coventrians First XV welcomed table-topping Ledbury to the Club – a Team with 8 wins from 8 each with a bonus point. The fixture coincided with the Club’s Ladies Day which made for a really fantastic atmosphere at the Club.
On a lovely, sunny Winter’s day, a confident Ledbury side chose to play uphill in the first half. After a few minutes play, Old Coventrians early pressure told as the Ledbury defence gave away a penalty on their own 22 metre line, just to the side of the posts. Elliott Sheepy stepped up and slotted the kick home for the home side to take an early lead. The game ebbed and flowed from end to end for the next 20 minutes with both sides trying their best to break through some stern defensive work. A series of penalties given away by the Old Coventrians put Ledbury on the home sides 5 metre line and a powerful driving maul took Ledbury across the whitewash, with the subsequent conversion taking Ledbury into the lead. As it turned out, Old Coventrians Achilles heel throughout the game (and Ledbury’s strength) was defending against the driving maul from lineouts.
Old Coventrians had their chances, some good play in the middle of the park gave them a three versus one on the right-hand side of the pitch but they chose to kick through rather than keep the ball in hand and exploit the overlap!
As half time approached, Old Coventrians fell on the wrong side of the referee’s favour and continued to get penalised time and time again for a variety of offences. After one such penalty was conceded, Old Coventrians Captain, George Curtis, offered his view to the referee of the quality of his decisions and was subsequently red carded. Ledbury kicked to the corner and, unsurprisingly, opted to catch and drive from the maul which again took them over for a try. After an excellent first half contest, the home side went into halftime 12 v 3 down – but definitely not out!
Half Time: Old Coventrians 3 v Ledbury 12
The second half started well for Ledbury. Making the most of the Old Coventrians being a man down, Ledbury moved the ball wide on the halfway line, created the overlap and their left winger ran the ball in for a try in the corner – taking the score up to 17 v 3. Some of the crowd feared the worst but the 14 men on the home team rose to the challenge superbly and actually looked the better side throughout the second half – led by some excellent play across the back line. The teams were level on numbers within 10 minutes of the second half with the Ledbury back row forward being yellow carded for a high tackle. Old Coventrians took advantage of that and a superbly worked back move saw the full back crash through the Ledbury line to feed Ayuk Tayang on the left wing to run the ball in from 10 metres out. The conversion was missed.
Old Coventrians backs continued to threaten, and a number of clean line breaks breached the Ledbury defensive lines but the final pass just would not go to hand – and the home side would rue several missed opportunities! A rare venture in to the Old Coventrians 22 for Ledbury saw them secure another try from a driving maul from a line out just 5 metres out. Old Coventrians were determined not to give up and again broke through the Ledbury backline and Ollie Cunningham powered over for an excellent try.
Time was running out for the home side, but they got a glimmer of hope of gaining a losing bonus point when the referee awarded a penalty for them between the oppositions 22m and 10 m lines. On a tough day for kickers, Elliot Sheepy narrowly missed the kick, just slotting the ball wide of the right-hand post.
The team should take a lot of pride from this performance against a team topping the league table. Lots of positives to take away – not least of all our determined defence. Some better decision-making under pressure and they could have pulled off a famous victory. On to Luctonians next week – who sit second in the League Table on the same points as Ledbury. No rest for the wicked!!
