South catch a cold at local rivals Syston

South were in action against local rivals Syston at a packed Barkby Road ground for the latest round of N3M games. Not quite as near the bare bones in selection as of last week, but nevertheless without six regulars.
Keiran Collins, Matt Fisher and Wes Cartwright all returned while Len Fincham, Steve Martin and DMU’s Zach made up the bench.

South started the game with the wind and made the early running with Mark Lord converting two penalties for a 6-0 lead. They were, however, finding it difficult to establish a forward platform against a youthful and enthusiastic Syston pack. Warren Coles opened the home sides scoring with a try wide on the left. Ian Smith couldn’t convert. South responded quickly as Lord threw out a long pass to outflank the home defence with speedster Sam Greasley going over the line wide on the left. Lord converted with a fine kick to move the score onto 13-5 in South’s favour as the half time whistle blew.

Syston took the game to South as Coles added his second unconverted try as they edged closer. Mike March was sinbinned for a high tackle by referee Luke Haskins then Paul Walsh added Syston’s third, again, unconverted try.
A collective malaise seemed to wash over South as the first up tackling in defence went AWOL and possession seemed to dry up. Lord did, however, kick his third penalty to nudge South back into the lead 15-16 on the hour.
Matt Fisher prevented an almost certain try soon after, as the young Syston hooker fell awkwardly and sustained a serious leg injury – a suspected broken ankle. The game was transferred to the neighbouring pitch as we waited an eternity for the ambulance to arrive and treat the unfortunate player.

The game resumed, but South were found wanting as Ian Smith scored a try, added the simple conversion and closed out the game with a penalty. Syston with the late flourish denied South a losing bonus point and were jubilant at taking revenge for the County Cup final defeat and their first league victory against South in six attempts.
Ian Smith has indeed scored consecutively against South as suggested in this morning’s Rugby Paper, they, however, forgot to mention Stu Bale’s five try haul in his last three games against Syston and Mark Lord’s 51 points.

Syston deserved to win, but South were strangely inept in all the basics required to be victorious at this level. Hopefully, we can keep it going for the final two home games of the season versus ON’s and do the double over play off bound DK on the last day of the season.

All at South send their good wishes to Tom Jordan and hope he has a speedy recovery from his injury.

Team: Collins, Cartwright, Fisher, Smith, Greasley, Lord, McFedries, Castrogiovanni, Johnson, March, Bale S, Langan, McNaughton, Coltman ©, Stapleford.

Unused replacements: Fincham, Martin, Zach.

Man of the Match: Mark Lord.