Lymington’s run continues
Lymington Mariner II/vets 47 – 7 Ellingham and Ringwood III
Saturday 26th February
On their boggy home pitch Lymington Mariners still managed to turn on the style as they ran in 9 tries against Ellingham and Ringwood’s third team on Saturday. In a week off from the merit league the Mariners turned up en mass with 24 players representing the side including another debutant , Adam Atkinson who in doing so became the 50th player to pull on the jersey for the club this season. To continue with the statistics it’s worth mentioning this was also the 20th game of the season, the sixth victory in a row as well as the 15th victory of the season. Lymington went in to the game having scored exactly 100 tries in the previous 19 fixtures, took the tally to 108 after today with an average of just under 5.5 a game - a total of 676 points scored and only 223 conceded. Not bad for a new club in only it’s second ever season.
The first half was a close affair with Lymington leading by 15-7 at the mid-interval break. Led out by captain of the veterans, Andy O’Callaghan, Lymington put Ellingham and Ringwood on the back foot from the start. The first of the tries (his 20th of the season) was scored by vice-captain, fly half Joe Rodway with a skilful chip and chase over the visitors defence.
Lymington’s second try came after No.8 John West made a break through the defensive line to run clear with only the full back to beat. But beat him he didn’t and so instead recycled the ball for the two supporting flankers Ben Bradley-Watson and Andy O’Callaghan to play one-two with the ball before releasing winger James Bell, who from 10 metres out crossed in the corner dragging the last tackler with him for his first try of the season.
Minutes after the restart, winger Bell, still high from his try, was brought crashing back down to earth when from a kick over the top by the Ellingham backs he turned on the gas to get back and snatch the ball before the attacking chasers could get there. Then however he bizarrely decided to do an impersonation of quarterback Dan Marino by throwing the ball 15 metres UP field. The referee managed to consult the law book in time to decide that the most relevant ruling was a deliberate knock-on, awarded the penalty which the visitors took quickly and scored. They duly converted and despite all the good work and early pressure the Mariners were only up by 3.
Lymington quickly re-asserted their control, the back line particularly working hard to prevent their opposite numbers from running the ball out of their own territory. Ben Vines at inside centre put in a storming performance in defence, tackling anyone who came his way, whilst Jamie Bolwell, Mike Jenner and Justin Bloomfield kept making the penetrating runs required to keep the momentum in Lymington’s favour. John West made another clear break down the middle, again squandering the opportunity to go all the way himself but at least had learned the lesson since his performance against Southsea not to do anything silly with the ball. Or at least we thought he had, until the second half that is…..
Then, in the final play of the half Lymington were awarded a penalty near Ellingham’s line. Joe Rodway took the quick tap and popped it to the ever-present Andy O’Callaghan who powered over the line to touch down.
8 changes were made at half time to the Mariner line-up but it did nothing to undermine the standard of play as 6 more tries were scored. The first came early on after a Lymington line-out was won cleanly by Mr. Dom ‘Nil Poi’ Ellis from another pin-point throw by rising star, hooker Anthony Hoyles. The ball was sent through the hands to outside centre Mark Etheridge who running in several directions at once managed to bounce off or run round at least 4 Ellingham defenders before touching down under the posts with an emotional outburst to celebrate his first ever try for the club. Joe Rodway kicked the conversion to extend the lead to 24-7.
Despite the wet and the mud Lymington continued to display some fine passing rugby and relentlessly moved the ball into Ellingham’s half of the pitch. Merrick Gill then scored a brace of tries to make it 3 in 2 matches for the flanker, both times collecting the ball in a crowd of players to scamper the final few crucial yards to cross the line. The first came from a turnover as a result of a bone-crunching tackle by nurse West, the second after some excellent interchanges between the forwards as first Callum Kellas and then Lee Thomas made good ground before off-loading in the tackle.
Desperate to show he hadn’t learned completely his Southsea lesson Westie then had his third good break of the match, galloping through the line half way up the pitch and then instead of using the three man overlap to his right decided he would rather sportingly send a sliced kick in to touch.
The penultimate try was scored following a number of quick rucks by the forwards in the opposition 22. The ball was spun wide to find prop, Jason Bolwell in the outside centre position doing his Tasmanian Devil impersonation as he charged through to ground the ball between the sticks. Joe missed his fourth conversion attempt in a row so the score stayed at 42-7.
With the final play of the half Steve O’Callaghan ‘apparently’ did all the hard work to set No.8 Lee Thomas up for the last try. Well I can tell you it didn’t fell like he’d done all the bloody hard work as I still had to employ a mercurial side-step before running 12 of the last 15 metres to the line in slow motion and diving gracefully the final 3 (despite John McGuffin’s match notes which say I ‘flopped over the line and got stuck’). Jason Bolwell’s attempt at a dropped conversion was, statistically speaking probably the worst ever in the history of the sport so the final score was 47-7.
This week the ‘Lymington Rivaaz Man of the Match’ award goes to tight head prop, Jason Bolwell who’s powerful running in the loose and dominating strength in the scrum was a reminder of why it’s about time he was available for selection more often. However we’ll keep young Bolwell as first choice for kicking duties.
And for those of you that loved the earlier stats, here’s some more – 32 players have now scored for Lymington Mariners this season. After today, having played 18 games for the club this season (with a total of 1,280 minutes on the pitch), 29 games in total for the club since its inception, Dom Ellis is still not one of them.
Next Saturday Lymington are at awayin a league match against Fareham Heathens. Any players, experienced or new to the game, young and fit or otherwise are all welcome to the club. For more details visit the website –
http://lymingtonmarinersrfc.wordpress.com/ or contact Lee Thomas on 07917 556 863 or at lee.thomas@skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk
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