Leamington RUFC kick off new season with win over Bromsgrove

Basking in delightful autumnal sun, the Bromsgrove ground provided an excellent playing surface, one which Leamington took full advantage of with a very confident start to the new campaign.

Their squad had several new faces and welcomed back some very familiar ones and had a good mix of youth and experience. Both providing the right ingredients for this hard fought victory.

The early exchanges set the scene for what turned out to be a very entertaining game, with Leamington hitting the right notes straight away with a darting run up the far side flank from Gareth Shuttleworth.

The home side then hit back and despite a try-saving tackle from Leamington full back, Sam Nunn, they opened up the scoring with a converted try.

This set back was soon pushed aside, as Leamington hit back with a flurry of very impressive scores.

New Centre, Alex Johnston, fitted seamlessly into the side and had already cannoned a penalty into touch to give his side good position.

He quickly followed up this with a decisive run from midfield, which skipper, Kinghorn controlled and then set Craig Smith and Shuttleworth away, with the latter getting the all important touch down. Northover then stepped up to send the difficult conversion attempt over and thus draw his side level.

Craig Smith quickly added to this opening score, with a well worked try, before he once again opened up the home defence with a forceful chase.

His presence was sufficient to cause panic and disarray and ultimately forced a penalty which the Referee deemed a clear scoring opportunity and thus awarded a “penalty try”.

Before the break Leamington went further ahead when Ed Gray sprinted out of defence and set Rich McKowen away for another impressive try, converted by Northover.

The home side, smarting at the way they had conceded points and territory in the first 40 minutes, hit back early in the second period and following three well engineered scores, drew level.

With pressure mounting, Leamington once again took control of the game and regained the lead with a second try of the day, from the ever-impressive Craig Smith.

The visitors, in dramatic fashion, saved their best try of the day for the finale.

Alex Johnston, capped a quite brilliant performance, with another startling run out of defence, unleashing McKowen in the process to quickly move the ball upfield.

As ever, Shuttleworth was not far away from the action and when play moved swiftly towards the hosts nearside touch and try line, he was on hand to deliver the final pass to Northover, who crashed over for a spectacular score.

The try scorer then added the conversion to conclude a very polished all round squad performance.

A long season awaits and, on this showing, Leamington’s supporters can expect another very entertaining campaign.

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