Rugby Union:
OLs bow out against Broadstreet

Old Laurentians 12 Broadstreet 52

Warwickshire Cup Quarter-Final

THERE was a degree of predictability about Saturday’s result with Broadstreet riding high in National Three Midlands whilst OLs sit some 20 league places below them in Midlands One, and so it proved.

Broadstreet’s forward power saw them ease into a comfortable 31-0 lead at the break and when they added a further converted try inside two minutes of the second half, an avalanche of points looked likely.

But OLs had other ideas and took the game to their visitors in a stirring rally that had the visitors on the back foot towards the end of the contest.

For OLs, Paul Lewis came into the back row for his first 1st XV game for four years whilst Tom Gleghorn made an appearance from the bench, his first outing for a couple of years. Richard Parker filled in at full back for Ben Roach to come in at scrum half whilst Ben Shepherd was called up to face the club for which he had been a leading performer for so many years.

Lee Chapman’s penalty and Tommy Harris’ converted try saw the visitors open up a 10-0 lead inside 15 minutes and by half time they had added to that advantage thanks to converted tries from Beddow, Daws and Turner.

OLs had competed effectively for long periods in the first half but their cause was not helped when losing skipper Ollie Cowley and lock Paul Willis to injury either side of the break.

They were joined by Lewis who limped off with an ankle injury so OLs had been forced to deploy all three replacements early in the second period.

When Turner went over for Broadstreet within two minutes of the restart it looked all up for the home side. But they responded magnificently and had the upper hand for much of the second half.

When Shepherd intercepted a stray pass near halfway he made 40m before the ball was recycled and replacement prop Garrie Reeve threw a smart dummy before delivering the pass that led to Dan O’Brien going over.

The pacy Broadstreet backs had got little change out of OLs’ backline throughout, Ben Scott, Troy Owen, Iain Wallis and Ben Shepherd controlling them well. But Chapman was always a danger and created an opportunity for McGory who sliced through to touch down.

Another period of OLs pressure led to two penalties in quick succession. From the line-out following the first, Dom Hammond made the first breach and from the second, taken quickly, OLs worked Gleghorn over and O’Brien converted with a fine kick.

Street responded when Turner got away to touch down his third of the afternoon, converted by Chapman.

Lewis had valiantly returned to the fray after Andy Coleman was forced off and during a sustained OLs offensive got over but was adjudged to have been held up.

Owen put in a strong run after smart work by Parker in defence and Ben O’Riordan made a fine break from the base of a scrum but the support was not quite quick enough to capitalise on a clear opportunity.

OLs did all of the attacking over the remaining ten minutes but could not breach the defence, finishing with heads held high after a gruelling encounter.

OLs face another stern test on Saturday (2.15pm) when entertaining second placed Burton.

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