Longton delivered an emphatic performance, claiming a dominant 47-12 win, with three tries coming in the first half to set the tone for a commanding victory.
From the kick-off, Longton asserted their dominance, showing their attacking intent early on. Their first try came within the opening 5 minutes, following slick hands from the forward pod, with Carl Williams breaking through the defensive line on the opposition 22 and offloading to Pete Wilshaw to run it, powering through the final defender, for a score under the posts. The conversion was comfortably added by Grant Hallam, giving Longton a 7-0 lead.
Tenbury then came back with a score of their own after Longton went down to 14 men due to a yellow card for a late challenge making it 7 – 7 after 30 minutes.
The momentum moved again with Longton, and they soon followed up with a second try. Crisp handling and support play saw the ball move from one side of the pitch to the other, leading to a line break from George Luscombe and an offload to Grant Hallam to run in the final 7 meters with defenders in tow. The conversion was once again successful, pushing the score to 14-7.
Longton’s third try of the half came just before the break, showcasing their forward pack’s power off the back of a scrum. Fast ball from the ruck giving Joe Hall the opportunity to score in the corner just before the half time whistle. From a tight angle the conversion effort from Josh Smith just fell short.
HT score – 19 - 7
The first score of second half, came from a counter attack off the back of a chip over from Tenbury’s 10, collected by Tyler Preston and offloaded to Charlie Rushton who managed to break the line with a dummy pass and run the remainder of the 80m of the pitch beating several defenders attempted tackles to score in the corner. Despite being a tight angle from distance the conversion was achieved by Grant Hallam making the score 26 -7.
Less than 10 minutes later, a powerful pick and go from the ruck by Pete Wilshaw saw him steam down the pitch with a great support run from Joe Hall who collected the offload to score under the posts. Grant Hallam again kicking the conversion to bring the score to 33-7.
Fast ball from the ruck and fast hands from the forwards then provided Grant Hallam with open space in front, from 5 meters within his own half, to run in a fine try beating several defenders and converting his own try, the score now being 40 – 7.
From the kick off a single phase was all it took for Carl Williams to provide a tip option to Pete Wilshaw cutting through the defence, Carl then ran the remaining 60m weaving in and out of opposition defenders while juggling the ball and finally handing off the last defender before scoring behind the posts.
Leaving Grant Hallam to kick the conversion bringing the score to 47 -7.
The opposition scored in the final minutes but a dominant performance from Longton all round with the power of the forwards and the finesse of the backs leading to a well deserved 47-12 final score. Notable performance from Josh Welsh on his debut for the first with powerful run and dominating tackles.
Now a weekend off to recover before taking the momentum into the next season game, away against Oswestry on the 12th October.