Match Report Sunday 18th January

South Leicester v Loughborough
Venue - Loughborough RFC Cotton Lane, Loughborough.
After a small hitch meaning we had to change pitches and had a delayed kick off we started brightly with Callum at fly half making a good driving run at the Loughborough defence.
This was continued by Mitch, who attacked the Loughborough back line, but South lost the ensuing ruck giving Loughborough some breathing space to clear their lines from a penalty. Loughborough continued attacking the South defence allowing a speedy centre to barrel through and get the first score. Conversion missed.
South rallied to attack again but some poor passing and missed tackles were allowing Loughborough to keep their attacks coming in. Their centre burst through again and to his credit made a fine run down the centre to score under the posts. They slotted the conversion 12-0 to Loughborough.
South showed great spirit with Ben making an exceptional run down the right wing with Mitch following up well, making Loughborough work really hard to clear the ball. An equal mix of scrums and line outs followed until half time which ended 12-0.
South came out well at the start of the 2nd half. Charlie made good ground down the right wing and from the following scrum Reece who was full of energy made a crunching tackle to force a South scrum.
Sam followed this up with a mazy run. This ended with a line out to the South and a fierce run from Morgan, who was also tackling everything in sight ! The pack was giving some great support and really putting pressure on the Loughborough pack.
Loughborough managed to wrestle the ball back and cleared their lines to near their ten yard line. South won the lineout and drove forward Reece recycled and passed to Callum, the X1 move looked on but Callum with fantastic speed scored a great solo effort after really outstripping the Loughborough defence and flying in under the posts ! Brilliant score ! Callum then caught his breath to slot the conversion ! 12-7 to Loughborough.
South had a renewed energy and spirit and really started attacking Loughborough putting in some great runs with the pack winning more ball. Loughborough though we're well drilled and made South work hard down the middle with Jack and Ben having to put in some big tackles.
The match continued at a great pace, really flowing keeping all the South supporters on the edge of their seats ! George made a thundering run from No8, ending in a scrum to Loughborough. Their No8 tried to copy George but was duly dumped by Reece in a hammer of a tackle. Loughborough cleared for a South lineout.
Ben managed to get the ball from the loose play after the lineout and made a stunning run down the left wing and with Charlie doing some excellent support work, he managed to steal the ball from the ruck and showed great power to drive over ! Fantastic try from Charlie 12-12 !!
Mitch made a great effort from wide out narrowly missing the conversion.
The match continued at a great pace and was nail biting stuff but Loughborough managed to capitalise on our mistakes and managed to sneak two more well taken tries which with one being converted leaving the final score 24-12 to Loughborough.
Despite losing this was a much improved performance from our team. Loughborough were a well drilled physical team but again we showed we can compete with anyone and when we turn it on we can score great tries and play exciting rugby ! Lads just keep working for each other, work hard in your passing and tackling skills and we will continue to develop into an excellent team. Well done lads ! Again we are all very proud of you !