Saturday 23rd February 2008
National Three South
Clifton 13 - 24 Lydney
Clifton Match
As usual there were injuries and unavailability’s in the Clifton team. Half backs Ollie Sills and John Barnes together with centre Dave Butler and top try scorer Rob Viol were all absent, and in the case of Butler he will now miss the remainder of the season following a hernia operation. We did see the welcome return of Andy Bell who played at 10 as well as Joe Burford at 9 following his injury problem.
It was Clifton who opened the game the brighter. They controlled the ball throughout the opening few minutes and were deep in the Lydney half but without making a clear opening. Ironically it took the binning of the Lydney captain for stamping, to spark his team into action. They started to get the driving maul going which proved with the misfiring scrum to be the Clifton Achilles heel on the day.
The first Lydney score came after 21 minutes and was immediately preceded by the loss of Setherton after a long break from inside the ‘22’. A penalty was kicked to the corner where the resulting driving maul saw a try for Slatter. After the loss of McMillan an attack by the home side saw a them have a scrum put in and a well practised move saw winger Macrea score by the posts. This one was converted. Just 4 minutes later at the 31 minute mark saw a Lydney pushover try for number 8 Emery to take the score to 17 points to nil. This was the half time score.
Clifton again came out well in the second period. Barney Kent made the first of several incisive breaks but lack of support saw the chances go begging. It took until the 56th minute for Clifton to score when Bell converted a short range penalty. Just two minutes later and Clifton had their first try. From a scrum on halfway number 8 Paul Reid picked up and ran unimpeded to score. Unfortunately for Reid and Clifton he dislocated his shoulder in diving for the line to the amusement of the home support and was replaced by Phil Schmid.
The next score came to the home side and resulted from their only concerted attack of the half. They were awarded a penalty try from their first drive to the line for loss of binding by one of the Clifton back row. The conversion was a formality.
There was time for a second Clifton try. Phil Schmid picked up from a scrum and passed directly to Rob Trinick who scored near the corner. It was however too little too late and a game that could have been won had gone. Final score Lydney 24 Clifton 13.
This was a good display by the good guys but another loss and no points puts the pressure on as the games start to drift away. The Musets MotM was Barney Kent who had a stormer and was a constant threat in midfield.
Clifton scorers: Tries Reid and Trinick. Penalty Bell.
Clifton team: Raines, Mace, White, Smith, McMillan, Lambert (Capt), Hardy, Reid, Burford, Bell, Trinick Kent, Leonard, Sacco, Setherton
Reps: Steadman (for White 57), Cox (for McMillan 24), Schmid (for Reid 58), Teixeira (for Setherton 21).
Next week it is back home for the must win game against Luton. This is the opportunity of redeeming some face after the poor performance there earlier this season. See you there.
MRW