Rugby Union
Superb second half sees Lutterworth into final

Vipers 12 Lutterworth 34

Leicestershire County Bowl Semi-Final

TWO tries from Joe Sullivan helped Lutterworth secure a place in the Leicestershire County Bowl final with victory at Vipers on Saturday.

The hosts announced their intentions early on with a very competitive scrum and that proved to be their main route of attack throughout the first half.

Lutterworth, who will tackle Market Harborough in the final, were constantly under pressure but fortunately for them their line-out worked well and was the main source of clean ball.

It was Vipers who put the first points on the board though with a converted try and when they went over from a scrum shortly afterwards they suddenly held a 12-0 advantage.

Sullivan almost crossed as Lutterworth tried to respond when racing on to James Lloyd's chip but he was held just short.

The visitors did get on the scoreboard before the break though when fly half Robin Eager kicked a penalty after the hosts had been caught off-side.

Prop Ian Jones and flanker Richard Bailey were introduced into Lutterworth's pack at the start of the second half and the scrum instantly became more stable.

When Vipers were penalised for collapsing a maul, Lutterworth opted for touch and the resulting line-out developed into a maul which the home side again pulled down.

When the referee yellow carded a Vipers man, there began a period of play when the home side completely lost their discipline.

As Lutterworth used their numerical superiority to good effect, the home side continued to offend and a second player was sent to the sin-bin.

The visitors were completely dominant for the last 30 minutes and driving mauls resulted in tries for second row Luke Evans and Lloyd, the latter being converted.

Vipers' problems continued to escalate when their number nine was shown the red card but even back to 14 men they had no answer to the series of attacks being mounted by Lutterworth.

Sullivan scored two tries in quick succession, the second after a really strong run which Eager converted.

The gloss was put on the victory when Tom Hooper ran past most of the opposition and dived over, Eager's boot added the final two points of the contest.