Old Leamingtonians 12 Earlsdon 29: OLs throw away the chance of any reward against Earlsdon

It was a beautiful January day at The Crofts on Saturday but it did not turn out sunny for Old Leamingtonians who went down to a comprehensive defeat against second-in-the-table Earlsdon.
Toby Lord spreads the play during Old Leamingtonians Midlands Two West (South) clash with Earlsdon. Picture: Tim NunanToby Lord spreads the play during Old Leamingtonians Midlands Two West (South) clash with Earlsdon. Picture: Tim Nunan
Toby Lord spreads the play during Old Leamingtonians Midlands Two West (South) clash with Earlsdon. Picture: Tim Nunan

Old Leamingtonians started well enough but were unable to convert a fifth-minute penalty.

For the next quarter of an hour honours were even but when the visitors got within range, OLs conceded a penalty in front of the posts to leave Earlsdon’s number ten with a simple task to slot over the three points.

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Earlsdon quickly struck again, this time with a fine threequarters move, which ended with a well-taken try under the posts.

Again the kick was an easy one as the visitors opened up a ten-point advantage.

OLs got their game together and made a foray into the Earlsdon 22.

From a penalty, the ball found its way to Tom Hyam who produced a brilliant delayed pass to centre Tom Eales who scythed his way through the opposition to go in under the posts.

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Angus Rose kicked the conversion to bring it back to 10-7 at the interval.

Five minutes into the second half, Earlsdon re-established their grip on the game courtesy of another three-quarters move in the OLs 22.

A long pass out to the wing outflanked the whole OLs defence to allow a try in the right-hand corner.

The kick was missed but just two minutes later Earlsdon extended their lead.

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Old Leamingtonians were looking dangerous, but lost the ball in a turnover and the speedy Earlsdon backs ran more than half the length of the pitch to score under the posts.

The kick was good to give Earlsdon a commanding 22-7 lead.

OLs did not lie down and in another excursion into the Earlsdon 22 they won good ball to feed their three-quarters and stand-off Tom Hyam evaded the defenders to score a great try on the right-hand flank.

The kick was missed but Old Leamingtonians felt they were back in the game at 22-12.

The Earlsdon scrum-half who had been spoiling for a fight the whole game was eventually spotted by the referee but not before a brawl erupted which led to the sin-binning of the visitors’ numbers eight and nine and the Old Leamingtonians scrum- half.

The man-advantage failed to benefit OLs, however.

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Following a missed penalty from the visitors, OLs chipped the ball back to them in midfield and again allowed the Earlsdon backs to waltz up the field for their fourth, and bonus point, try.

The kick was once again successful from in front of the posts to leave Old Leamingtonians thinking hard about how poor handling and ball retention cost them any chance of taking something from this match.