By Alan Poole, Coventry Telegraph.
January 28 2015

Rugby Lions cruised into the Midlands final of the RFU Junior Vase with a comprehensive 48-3 win against Sileby Vikings.

The Loughborough outfit, currently in the bottom half of the Midlands Four East table, were a committed bunch but never looked capable of threatening their 100 per cent hosts once Adam Attenborough had cantered through for the opening try inside two minutes.

Lions had to be content with a 14-3 interval lead – three Gaz Bott penalties eclipsing one for the visitors – but they stepped up a gear in the second period to reel off six tries, a Ciaran Wardle hat-trick supplemented by Jack Riley, Aiden Parkinson and Dave Bunting.

Player coach Rob Dignum declared: “Ultimately this was a satisfying win as it allows us the opportunity of defending our title in the Midlands final on March 14 and potentially bigger things beyond that.

“Other positives were again those coming off the bench; Jack Riley, Aiden Parkinson, Paddy Larchet, Dave Bunting and Danny Campbell all adding energy and impetus.

“Danny has recently joined us and will no doubt be one to watch, a player with all the tricks. However next comes the headache of where to play him as we now have some very good scrum-halves at our disposal.”

Newbold-on-Avon’s dream of a day out at Twickenham are over for another year after a heart-breaking 26-24 defeat in their Intermediate Cup tie at Northampton Old Scouts.

Despite falling way short of this year’s performance levels, the Rugby men led 24-23 when a contentious offside decision enabled Adam Frost to drill home the decisive penalty with the last kick of the game.

It all started so well as Rory Blood logged the opening try from a kick-through by Joss Andrews who converted for a 7-0 lead.

Scouts quickly retaliated – second row Chris Hillery driving through and Frost adding the extras – and, having passed up two lineout opportunities, Bold were breached by another forward assault, Jordan Judd doing the damage this time and Frost again landing the conversion.

With Andrews and Frost swapping penalties it was 17-10 at the break and two more Frost kicks stretched that to 23-10. But although Newbold continued to clock up more penalties, Scouts accumulated three yellow cards to their rivals’ one and it was during one of their sin-bin sessions that Ethan Wookey converted a penalty try to close the gap to 23-17.

Second-half replacement Ben Thompson then powered through to set up Declan George for a try between the posts, Wookey’s conversion giving them their slender lead.

But after both teams had passed up further kicks, the linesman’s last-gasp intervention tipped the scales and left Newbold to travel home ruminating on a bitterly disappointing turn of events.

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