S & L 7 v 21 Wellingborough

Wellingborough recorded their second win over Stewarts & Lloyds in as many weeks as they ran out 21 points to 7 winners in the first round of the East Midlands Cup.

With the strong wind going directly down the pitch it was Borough who had the elements in their favour for the first 40 and skipper Pete Vickers used this to his teams advantage and kept S&L pinned in their half. The preassure finally told when the ball was moved wide in the backs and Jonny Schoeman rounded his winger to score under the post. Vickers converted.

The Borough backs were making good breaks through Paul Lambert and Ben Heffernan in the centres but they could not find that final support runner to score. A nice break from Vickers nearly set up another score but he was caught short.  In the tackle he received an unintentional kick to the head which saw him leave the field for a few moments to stop the bleeding.

S&L continued to hold their visitors out with Jonny Ironmonger putting in some big hits and stealing good ball. With the half coming to an end Vickers landed a penalty from 45 metres out and then on the stroke of half time landed another from inside his own half to give them a 13 nil lead.

The scoend half started how Wellingborough left it with the forwards and backs combining well to work their way up the field.  Martin Little was leading the way in the set piece with Dan Coxall and Shane McLaurie making good yards and carrying the ball well.

S&L were again penalised by the referee and Vickers kicked another 3 points with a sweetly struck kick into the wind.

The Captain was having a great day running the ball at every opportunity and made break after break to cause the S&L back line all sorts of problems.  Lambert and Heffernan were stopping the home side in every attack they made.

With time running out Borough kicked to the corner from a penalty which was driven over for Mattie Sanders to score.  S&L responded in the closing minutes and Ironmonger crossed for a consolation try making it 21-7 at the final whistle.

Vickers said after the game “I am extremely pleased with this result.  We only had about 9 first team players in the 20 man squad today.  This included a 17 year old and an 18 year old.  We wanted to give some players from the 2^nd team and also guys returning from injury the opportunity to push for first team this week and every single player took their chances today and played very very well.”