South extinguish the Syston fire

South travelled to local rivals Syston’s Barkby Road ground for the second of back to back away game in N3M. The South side was the same as the one that finished the game at Scunthorpe with the exception of Will Ward who was unavailable, replaced by Aaran Langan, with the return of Keiran Stone. Jack Owens, Mark Lord and Ed Hopkins made up the bench. The game was contested in ideal sunny, but crisp conditions on a good pitch.

At Scunthorpe, South started at pace even in the face of a gale, but here they were slow to get into the game as Syston threw everything at them. The home sides aggressive defence and competitive edge at the breakdown didn’t let the visitors settle. Ricky Aley converted a penalty for South to open the scoring, but Syston immediately came back to score two quick tries, one converted to take an early 12-3 lead.
South awoke from their slumbers as the forwards began to gain ground causing the home side to defend continually. A series of lineouts in the Syston red zone enabled Harry Owens to make the running putting Connor Smith in to touch down under the posts, routinely converted by Aley. He added a penalty soon after and converted Lee Robinson’s well worked try in the right hand corner as the tide turned and South were in the ascendancy leading 20 points to 12 at the interval.

Syston came out with all guns blazing in the second half and it was South’s turn to defend desperately. Quickfire yellow cards for Lee Robinson and Connor Smith put them under considerable pressure and the home side took advantage. A penalty and an unconverted try from Syston levelled the scores at 20-20 on the hour. Mark Lord replaced Harry Owens while brother Jack replaced Keiran Stone in order to add fresh legs to the contest. Syston were reduced to 14 men via the yellow card and South responded well to score the best try of the day. A long pass from Lord, quick hands from Smith, Will Cave and Danny Graney enabled speedster Gareth Kerr to burn around the home defence to score a fine try. Aley couldn’t convert, but he did add another penalty to move South away into an eight point lead.
The war of attrition continued as you would expect in a local derby. The home side, however, were getting frustrated and got on the wrong side of the referee with two yellow cards and being marched back at penalties due to indiscipline.
Again, South took advantage with Jack Owens, Stu Bale and Josh McLaurin all carrying well to put increased pressure on the home defence. From a ruck, on the blindside, the ball was transferred to Robinson, who in his trademark fashion, ran over and through the home cover wide out to add South’s fourth and bonus point gaining try. A late yellow card for Danny Graney, who stopped a late Syston breakaway, was unfortunate and ill deserved, but South saw out the final minutes for a well deserved fifth victory of the season by 33 points to 20.

The home side raised their game, as they always do when playing a local derby, and initially made life uncomfortable for South. However, the visitors rode the storm and played some good stuff, scoring some well worked tries in the process.
A number of players lead by example under considerable pressure, organising and gaining the hard yards necessary for victory.

Another local derby next week as holders Hinckley visit Welford Road in the first round of the Leicestershire County Cup – funny how the two top rated league teams meet so early in the competition – what happened to seeding to ensure the best teams contest the final at the real Welford Road?

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

Lee Robinson added his ninth and tenth try of the season to go joint top try scorer in the league with Bournville’s Robin Eatough while Rhod McNaughton put in a fine shift at the coalface and showed some subtle handling skills. Stu Bale was huge in the carrying stakes while again Josh McLaurin and Simon Johnson put in some huge hits.

More of the same next week, but a little faster start, please!