IT MAY have come too late in the day in their fight for survival in the Midland One East, but Old Laurentians produced their best performance of the season to beat Northampton Old Scouts 30-13 on Saturday, reports Bill Wallis.
Five tries topped off a fine performance for Old Laurentians who comfortable reversed the 28-3 scoreline between the two sides back in November.
At the core of this success was an impressive display by OL’s pack, the standout performance coming from prop Kieran McArdle who terrorised the visitors with some awesome running.
With nine minutes gone some excellent approach work by centres Ben Wiles and Troy Owen, carried on skilfully by Dom Hammond, created the position from which McArdle crashed over for the first try.
Soon after Wiles put over a penalty with 20 minutes gone but as half-time approached, Old Scouts responded with a well taken try by winger Barratt before fly half Frost kicked a penalty to level the scores at 8-8.
After scrum half Ricky Reed was forced off with a knock, a re-shuffle brought Jon Bean on for his first outing since returning to the club at fly half, allowing Grant Inch to move to full back with Richard Parker moving up to scrum half.
With four second half minutes gone Ben Anderson was quickest to the loose ball to touch down for a try and a 13-8 lead after a kick was charged down by Mark Todd
After a massive charge by McArdle, OLs won a penalty and from the following lineout a catch and drive led to Glenn Todd going over to lift OL’s lead to 18-8 after twenty minutes of the half.
Three minutes later came a fine team try. Great running and support play gave Ben Scott the yard of space he needed and the wing weaved over for the try that hoisted OL’s lead to 23-8 and earned a bonus point.
This was followed five minutes later by another fluent passage of play, OLs going through the phases to open up Scouts’ defence for Richard Parker to go over, Bean’s conversion lifting the lead to 30-8.
In the final minutes, Scouts mounted a spirited rally, and got over the line for a try in added time that their efforts had earned.
This Saturday sees Wellingborough visit Fenley Field and OLs will be looking to reverse the heavy defeat suffered in the away game in November.
On this form OLs have an excellent chance to lift themselves off the bottom of the table for the first time this season, as their closest rivals all have tough looking fixtures.
