South dominate in storm lashed, then inexplicably, sunny Scunny.

South travelled north to Scunthorpe with virtually a full strength side, with only Chris Bale sidelined due to an ankle injury and Keiran Stone unavailable. Jack Owens was restored to the front row with Will Ward moving to 6 and Josh McLaurin at 8. George Ord partnered Stu Bale in the engine room while Connor Smith partnered Will Cave in the centre. Harry Owens, Ed Hopkins and Arran Langan made up the bench.

Where as last week’s game was one of two contrasting halves due to a breeze and each teams shared dominance, this was a game of two halves based on absurdly contrasting climatic conditions.
South played against the wind, heavy horizontal driving rain, storm clouds and the slope in the first half. A celestial switch was pulled at half time and although the wind continued, bright sunlight was the order of the day shining on South as they scored twenty five points in that period to clinch the game.

The South faithful took refuge in the home sides grandstand in the deluge, but for the players there was no respite as conditions dictated patterns of play. South were intelligent and kept it close, playing most of their rugby in the home sides half. Some handling difficulties were to be expected in the horrendous conditions, but generally, both sides made a good fist of overcoming those limitations.
A Scunthorpe yellow card for persistant offside enabled South to take a numerical advantage although there were a few Scunthorpe break outs which were well held by the South scramble defence. Relieving kicks by Danny Graney, Mark Lord and Ricky Aley kept the home side in check.
South laid siege to the Scunthorpe line with Josh McLaurin, Simon Johnson, Luke Coltman and Will Ward all getting close or being held up. The deadlock was finally broken when Lee Robinson barged his way over for the opening try wide on the right. The resultant Lord conversion was held up in the face of the gale. Will Cave added South’s second try after similar pressure, while Lord’s conversion went the way of his first. South were well worth their lead having played the conditions well. On the stroke of half time Scunthorpe added a penalty as the sunshine switch was pulled.

Half time: Scunthorpe 3pts South 10 pts.

Now playing with the wind, slope and a low sun South were initially a little complacent as the home team put together a series of phases leading to a score from their No8. The attempted conversion dropped short, now with only two points separating the teams.
However, South stormed back with the rolling maul taking the steam out of the home side. Simon Johnson broke away from one such maul and fed Mark Lord to go over for South’s third try. The conversion was again blown wide.
Raking skidding kicks to the corners kept the pressure on the home side as again South played all their rugby in the home side’s danger zone.
Lord was withdrawn on the hour with Harry Owens taking his place in the backline and Ricky Aley taking over the kicking duties.
Aley (amusingly mis-identified as Arran Langan by the announcer) duly converted two long range penalties to further South’s lead while converting Rhod McNaughton’s bonus point gaining try from a dynamic lineout catch and drive.
Danny Graney collected a desperate Scunthorpe clearance kick and set off on a penetrative surge before feeding Connor Smith to run in South’s fifth try, finely converted by Aley to conclude the scoring.
Try as they might Scunthorpe never looked like scoring again in the second half and South ran out worthy 35-8 winners and no yellow cards!

This display was probably the most controlled, disciplined and complete 80 minutes from South this season. Valuable contributions were made by everybody in the squad. First up tackling was much improved as was the kick chase and line speed meaning the dangerous home winger Viamoso was well shackled throughout the game.

George Ord had his best match so far in a South shirt and the new centre combination of Connor Smith and Will Cave looked dangerous throughout.
Stu Bale relished the conditions and carried consistently into the heart of the Scunthorpe defence on many occasions, making the hard yards necessary for South to go forward at will.

If South played with this level of intensity and discipline every week then a rise up the league must be expected – more of the same please next week at Syston and the following week in the home County Cup showdown with Hinckley.

Squad: Graney, Robinson, Cave, Smith, Kerr, Lord (Owens H), Aley, McLaurin (Langan), Johnson, Ward, Bale S, Ord, Owens J (Hopkins), Coltman, McNaughton.