Rugby Union
OLs ease to victory

Buy photos » Andy Orbinson heads to the try line for OLs 2nds. Picture by Ray Todd.

OLD Laurentians ran out comfortable 31-3 winners against Daventry in a friendly on Saturday.

The home pack won control of the forward battle early on to dominate territory and possession and it needed some outstanding defensive play at times by the visitors to keep the score down.

Daventry were dangerous on the break but OLs used the stiff wind in the second half to keep them on the back foot and limit their opportunities to a few scraps.

OLs gave debuts to Dom Cowderoy, Sean Rule and Mark Eagles, the latter crowning a promising performance with a well taken try.

Welcomed back after a long injury lay-off was Troy Owen and grasping rare chances in the 1st XV were Rudi Reid and Jack Boulden, who both performed well in the forward play.

Adding to Eagles’ try were touchdowns from Simon Bayliss, Iain Wallis and Troy Owen, Jon Bean converted all four scores and added a penalty.

THE 2nds consolidated their position at the top of Warwickshire One with a 25-12 success at Rugby St Andrews 2nds.

Ted Spiby won the ball for OLs from the kick-off and after a couple of phases of play they won a penalty which was successfully kicked by Denzil Evans to make it 3-0 for the only points of the half.

Saints opted for a scrum at the start of the second half when awarded a penalty and it proved to be the right decision as it led to a converted try and a 7-3 lead.

Howard Harris ensured OLs responded in the best possible fashion by collecting and scoring under the posts after Saints’ dropped a high kick, Evans converted. The score seemed to settle Saints and they went further ahead when Richard Hayes took advantage of hesitancy from Saints to score a try.

OLs made it 20-7 thanks to Andy Orbinson’s try in the corner but when they failed to deal with the restart it allowed Saints to close the gap with their second try.

Spiby had the final say though when touching down after Cain Jones claimed the ball in a line-out and a maul was set up which pushed Saints back over their own line.