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Swinton Lions 24 v 20 Reserves

By Graham Henthorne, Reserve Team Manager

After last week’s poor display anything would have been better - but to push their senior opposition so close will have given much needed confidence to the Senior Academy. In fact, this was a game that they could and probably should have won.

After the worst possible start, conceding a try in the Lions’ first attack to a neat chip to the corner, the Reserves knuckled down and controlled the rest of the half. They signalled their intent taking the lead on five minutes. Quick hands from Lee Cunliffe down the blind side at a play the ball allowed Haggy to break the line only for Bainesy to be brought down short. On the last Chris Frod’s kick in goal brought a repeat set. From the restart Roughers drove to the line before Sam Thompson came on the burst to score at the sticks. Stotty converted.

Chris Frodsham was back to his best tormenting the defensive line and broke through but just didn’t have enough to beat the fullback. It was his wide ball over the winger to Akin Okunola who was pushed into touch metres short. From the resulting scrum good pressure from Sean Weed caused a Lions knock on and a Saints’ scrum.

Two drives to the left opened up the spaced own the right for Haggy to burst the defence to score his first of the afternoon. Stotty’s second conversion made it 4 – 12.

The lads had the bit between their teeth at this stage epitomised by Dale Bloomfield and Weedy chasing down a great Froddy kick into the in-goal to produce a repeat set. Despite all the good work there was no further score and you had the feeling that the Lions couldn’t play as badly again in the second half.

This proved to be the case as they came out with a different attitude. However, it was Saints that extended their lead. Good pressure again forced a Lions knock on. The pack made good yards down the left, sucking in the defence, leaving an overlap on the right which Weedy used superbly for his try.

But the Lions came roaring back scoring two converted tries around the hour mark to even the scores. Undaunted the Saints gave as good as they got. First Weedy ran at his opposite winger committing him only pass the ball over Dale’s head with the line begging.

But a minute later Saints retook the lead as Haggy scored his second. From a scrum on half way the pack made good ground to the 20 metre line where Froddy again teased the defensive line before picking out Haggy’s great diagonal run for him to stroll in. Crucially Stotty couldn’t convert either try in this half leaving Saints clinging to a four point lead going into the last ten minutes.

Five minutes to go and good scrambling defence denied the home side a try as the man was held up over the line. Saints turned defence into attack and Chris Frod again timed his pass superbly to put Hully through a gap wide of his marker. He took it to the fullback but forced the pass inside only to see it intercepted. Immediately the Lions took advantage of the disorganised defence and levelled the scores with a try in the corner.

As the game looked to be heading for a draw Swinton made one last attack down the middle. The tiring defence came up with a couple of missed tackles exploited to the full by the Lions scoring the winning try in the corner.

This was a vast improvement on last week from a Saints side containing some new faces as well as some old ones from the Junior Academy against an experienced Swinton side containing many ex-Saints. Chris Frodsham played well, Liam Gilchrist charged into the opposition both with and without the ball, as did Haggy and Sam Thompson. The same degree of improvement week on week and the competition for places could make for some hard decisions for the coaching staff

Swinton Lions	St Helens
Darren Bamford	Phil Baines
Andrew Saywell	Dale Bloomfield
Chris Hull	Sean Weed
Barry Hamilton	Dave Hull
Marlon Billy	Akin Okunola
Craig Ashall	Andy Stott
Liam McGovern	Chris Frodsham
Rob Ball	Dave Roughley
Gary Sykes	Lee Cunliffe
Richard Jones	Sam Thompson
Chris Morley	Paul Johnson
Neil Rigby	Kurt Haggerty
Darren Gibson	Jake Emmitt
Richie Hawkyard	Danny Fairhurst
Lee Salisbury	Alex McClurg
Chris Tyrer	Liam Bland
Bruce Johnson	Liam Gilchrist
Matty Bryers	Sean Quinn
Wayne English	Olly Cooper
Chris Brand	Warren Thompson
Mike Smith	Paul Leyland
Martin Moana