South go through to Leicestershire County Cup Final.

South entertained Syston in the semi final of the County Cup held over from snow affected early February. Buoyed by the return of Rich Lang and top try scorer Matt Thomas, while looking dapper in their new kit, South were determined to progress into the final for the third successive year. Unfortunately, nobody had told Syston and the triumvirate of match officials who together conspired to try and rewrite the script.
South opened the game nearly as slowly as in the previous week at Malvern as Syston took the game to the hosts, combining sustained attacks through both their backs and forwards. Against the run of play South were awarded two kickable penalties which unfortunately Mark Lord couldn't convert. Syston, meanwhile, upped their effort and were rewarded with a try to open the scoring. The straightforward conversion in front of the posts was missed.
South without being able to put together a dominant forward platform proceeded to play well for the next 10 minutes which ultimately won them the match. Much of the good work in that period was initiated by Rich Lang injecting pace from the back and some barnstorming runs from Chris Bale with the Syston defence found wanting.
Tries from Keiron Collins, Sam Badham and Rob Sands (his first for the club - to his mum's delight!) resulted from South's total dominance, Lord adding two conversions.
Syston replied by converting one of the many penalties inexplicably awarded against South to make the half time score 19-8 in South's favour.

The second half was one that South would want to forget as both scrum and lineout stuttered against the Syston surge. South suffered as the penalty count mounted as the referee tried to redress the balance of the game. Fortunately, the Syston kicker did a passable impression of Ronan O'Gara to hit the post twice and miss three other kickable penalties. Yellow cards were collected by Keiron Collins (allegedly persistent offside), Mike March (the trademark high tackle) and replacement Ashley Stevens who was farcically carded for straying outside the technical area before even taking part in the game. No card for Syston coach Chris Tarbuck who continually prowled the opposite touchline giving the referee the benefit of his extensive decision making skills!
South put the game to bed in the last quarter as both Syston and the match officials ran out of steam with a well taken Matt Thomas try (with dive) and Lord converting to take the score to 26-11.
Wes Cartwright replaced injured Rob Sands for the last quarter and proceeded to add his best performance of the season. The four to one try count was conclusive for South, but if Syston had kicked their goals the outcome would have been somewhat tighter.

South move onto the final which disappointingly for all the players of both South and Hinckley is not being held at the real Welford Road home of the Tigers and scene of the South heroics from last season.
It's a shame that the Tigers won't host the final and support junior rugby (ground improvements not withstanding). Does that mean the remaining Tigers home fixtures after that date will be relocated to Oval Park because of Health and Safety fears? - I think not!
A similar situation to last season when the Leicestershire v Hampshire County Plate Final was deemed by the RFU as unsuitable to be played on the hallowed turf at HQ
denying the players their rightful place in the limelight.

Relocated Cup Final Venue: Market Harbrough RFC on Tuesday 24th March ko 7.30/45pm under lights.

Team: Lang, Thomas, Armstrong, Collins, Nicholson, Lord, McFredries, Bale, Sands (Cartwright), Matthews, Badham, Bayley, Green, James.

Unused replacements: Stevens, Antill, Mike Mark.

Man of the Match: Rich Lang.

Match Report:Phil Lord