A Tough afternoon

After two positive results against the Severnsiders last season, Nomads faced a much changed Lydney 2nd XV at Fromehall. It was great to see Joe Little make his return after suffering a serious leg injury at Lydney back in March.

Lydney were always going to be a challenge and their young squad of 22 players were full of pace and power all afternoon. Nomads started on the front foot and strong carries from centres Jamie Leworthy and debutant Carl Ranscombe took play towards the Lydney 22. A turnover and counter attack, which would become a feature of the afternoon led to a long break out. Desperate defence stopped the forward momentum but an infringement at the breakdown led to Lydney kicking a penalty.

Nomads scrum was secure and even managed to take ball off the opposition with powerful work led by Lee Geddis. Unfortunately, possession was turned over, which led to another penalty goal and two quick Lydney tries.

Although the scummage was secure, lineout ball was lost and one of these losses resulted in the powerful Lydney No8 galloping 70 meters up the pitch to score an incredible individual try.

Fred Stephenson was forced from the field with a dislocated thumb but was ably replaced by Matt Hunt playing out of position on the wing. Despite further forays into opposition territory, Nomads were unable to breech a well organised defence whilst Lydney scored another breakaway try courtesy of their outside backs.

Half Time Nomads 0 Lydney 32

Lydney continued to play with pace and power at the start of the second half and scored two more early tries. Committed defence led by Sam Davis and Matt Hunt kept Lydney at bay until their fly-half spotted a gap and ghosted in for a score. Continued excellent work in the scrum again led to possession and swift distribution from Joe Spurrell allowed Cory Baker to free Carl Ranscombe to produce a burst into the opposition 22. From this position possession was retained for a number of short range drives before good hands from the back line allowed Full Back Kyro Thomas to show his pace and score on the right hand side.

This score seemed to give Nomads confidence and strong carries from Chris Jones, Ryan Kibble and Fred McLennan again gave Stroud some go forward later in the game but they couldn’t cross the line for a deserved further score.

Final Score Nomads 5 Lydney 49

Despite the score line Nomads should take a number of positives from this performance, none more so then the tremendous commitment shown by each of the 17 players. With this, increased numbers at training and a growing squad Nomads could push on from this performance.

Next Game Newent 2nd XV (Away) Saturday 7th October