Lloyds of London take on Ernst & Young in round 5 of the City League

It felt like spring was in the air at East London RFC on Wednesday night as Lloyds of London (LoL) took on Ernst & Young (EY). The players definitely had a lot of spring in their step as long distance tries seemed to be the norm for the evening, indeed it felt like 7s.

The evening started with LoL loaning a couple of players to EY to make it 14 a side due to last minute drops outs at EY. LoL, then kicked-off and pinned EY back inside their 22. LoL passed the ball along the line and within meters of EY goal line, however, the ball ricocheted off EY’s No.6 Rob Hegarty’s head, following a bad pass and the ball goes forward.?As this is not a knock-on head, Rob scoops the ball and starts running. No one expected Rob to sprint the length, but he had a surprising turn of pace and by the time Rob was at the halfway line, it was left to the opposite wing cutting across the field to hunt him down. This failed to happen, and Rob touched down near the lefthand post, absolutely knackered but what a start by EY! The conversion is made by No. 16 and EY’s versatile prop, so it’s 7-0 with only 2 minutes gone.?This quarter is dominated by props from both sides, as Steve Taylor EY’s loosehead takes the ball and smashes through the defence managing to score under the posts, giving David Duffus an easy conversion, so scores are even with still only 4 minutes gone.

This was end-to-end rugby with some flair play. From the halfway line-out, LoL run the ball along the line to outside centre who tries a ‘through the legs’ pass to the winger. Now this seemed inspired by a recent 6 Nations game where Liam Williams tried to pass it to Louis Rees-Zammit and to be fair the result in both cases was the same, as the ball missed the intended target. The winger however, fly-hacks the ball into the EY 22 were 3 players failed to pick it up until a LoL player gets his hands on it and spin passes 10 meters to Tom Masters the LoL hooker, lurking to the left of the posts and he duly trots over to score a try. David Duffus hits the post. 12-7 to LoL

Next try is a long-range effort from the halfway. The LoL front row union decided to take a hand in proceedings. The ball goes wide to the LoL hooker who is hovering about on the right wing he catches the ball unlike another more famous hooker at the weekend in a similar pitch position and he runs forward, and his props appear as if by magic to support him. There are then a few passes to each other as the trundle quickly up the side-line where a glory hunting back, Josh Van Lowen, suddenly appears 5 meters out to collect the scoring pass much to the disappointment of the crowd. David Duffus converts again to make it 19-7 LoL 12 minutes on the clock.

Another halfway try for LoL is scored by their right wing James Urquart who, following a line-out just inside the LoL half, received the ball via his centres out on the right wing. James turns on the after burners and runs toward the EY try line. The defenders waiting for him look confident, but a beautiful pirouette gets round the first defender and the second dives at thin air whilst James goes over in the corner to the crowd’s appreciation. The conversion is unfortunately missed but the score ticks up to 24-7 to LoL 19 minutes gone.

EY are a bit rattled now and decide it’s time to perhaps score for themselves. The backs use a mixture of hit-ups and wide passing to get within 5 meters of LoL try-line where the forwards take over. A bit of boshing occurs and eventually EY No. 16 pops over the line on a short bash to score and duly converts to make the score 24-14. Game On….. at 24 minutes gone.

The rest of the first half was exhausting to watch as both teams ran up and down the pitch however no further tries as the defences seemed to have woken up. There was a yellow card for a reckless challenge by EY No.3 however LoL were unable to capitalise on the 1-man advantage.

The second half started similarly to the first half but with a try to LoL, again from long range down the wing, but no conversion 29-14 to LoL. 42 minutes gone. From then on it was a try fest. Both sides scoring from all angles. The score ticked over always with LoL in-front but EY constantly nipping at their heels, until the final whistle blew, and it was 51-41

A fun game played in a cavalier style by both sides which left them feeling tired but happy.

If you would like to get involved, our next match is Deloitte v PwC tomorrow night, kicking off at 19:30, please DM me if you fancy a runout or would like to be added to the City League Rugby network.?

Cheers Paul, John & Ant