LINCOLN COLTS 62
BOSTON COLTS 0
NLD COLTS GROUP 3
BY RUSS MAKINSON
PHOTO CREDIT: WEND BURROWS

Lincoln Colts ran out 62-0 winners in a ten try display at Lodge Lane on Saturday against a much depleted Boston.

At this age group, sometimes other commitments such as work or studies take precedence over rugby. Unfortunately this was the case for Boston who were only able to muster 12 players, similar to our away trip to Newark a couple of weeks ago.

In keeping with the spirit of rugby, as Newark had lent some players to Lincoln then, so we paid it forward to Boston to enable this game to go ahead.

Lincoln have been on the end of a run of unfavourable results recently, most of which do not reflect the hard work and effort that the lads have been putting in each week in training.

This match however, that hard work finally started to come together, as the lads were dominant in the forwards, which led to plenty of possession for the backs to exploit.

It didn't take long for the first score to be registered, with Max Cartwright getting onto the end of a flowing move for a converted try.

Following this, Lincoln's discipline started to drop, as Boston had a sustained period of pressure. This led to a yellow card for a Lincoln player for persistent team offsides.

Despite this, Lincoln's defence held firm, and they repeatedly cleared their lines. Lincoln's second try came from a sparkling duo run from Kyran Makinson and Harry Taylor, starting at their 22m and going the length of the field, with captain Zane Redfern on hand to finish it off.

This led to a surge in confidence not seen for a number of weeks in this team, as Lincoln's possession was turned into further points with tries from Ben Lintin, Finn Clements, Fin McKenna, Max Adams, and another for Cartwright. With most of these tries converted, this gave Lincoln a 45-0 lead at the break.

Lincoln swapped out the players who had been wearing Boston blue going into the second period, with some of our heavy hitters to try and even the game a little.

However, Lincoln's blood was up, and there was no let up in the second half. By 10 minutes in, Lincoln had scored another three tries (second tries each for Max Adams and Fin McKenna, and a solo break from a tap penalty for James Tomlinson), two converted to take the score to 62-0.

At this point, after discussion with the Boston coaches, the match was declared over, and with the kind agreement from the referee, the lads finished off another 10 minutes or so as a fun game where forwards played as backs and vice versa.

The highlight of this period was watching prop forward Connor Ward racing his way down the touchline for a scintillating winger's try that he'd swear was at least 50 metres...the swan dive to finish it off was a sight to behold!

Coach Russ said: "The lads have been a bit down recently due to a lack of wins, so it's great to see them back playing with smiles on their faces.

"Also brilliant to see the excellent rugby values shown, with no complaints about playing for the opposition... indeed, some of the lads relished this chance to tackle their mates.

"Although there are always things to work on, namely discipline, a lot of the hard work from recent training sessions made it's way into this match.

"There was some excellent lineout and srummaging from the forwards, and scintillating running displays from all the backs (and Connor!)... it all just came together, as the coaches knew it would eventually. Hopefully we can take this forward to the end of the season."