Coalville bow out in the semis

Coalville bowed out of the cup at the weekend to a very powerful forwards orientated Rugby Lions outfit who boasted a 100% win record.Coalville were dealt a blow even before the start as full back L.Nelson was sidelined during the warm up with a hamstring injury,Joe Moretta taking over and J.Gadsby moving to the wing from the bench S.Upton-Burton reverting to centre.Lions kicked deep from the off were M.Davies collected only to be clattered by the Lions forwards but some great defence by J.Parker and A.Collins saved the day enabling G.Blackburn to clear to half way.Backs to the wall rearguard from Coalville were pushed to the limit as Lions pressed for the opening score.A penalty to Lions was kicked to touch and from the lineout a driving maul showed the power of the Lions forwards as they worked their way towards the Coalville try line but Messrs W.Quail,Jake Moretta S.Gadsby,E.Rotstein halted the Juggernaut only for the Lions No7 to break from rear to touch down under the posts the conversion was good for a 7-0 lead.Undeterred by this setback the Coalville machine clicked into gear as M.Twigg set off on a run from inside the Coalville half supported well by M.Richmond whose perfect line opened up the Lions back line to find M.Chamberlain on the outside to score,7-5.The Lions came back with a couple of quick tries courtesy of the forwards Juggernaut to lead 19-5 with 20 minutes on the clock.The next 20 minutes belonged to Coalville though as they ran the big Lions forwards all round the park with Richmond capitalizing on some poor tackling from the non existent back line of the hosts to cross the whitewash,19-10.With the clock showing 40 minutes and Coalville camped on the Lions try line up stepped C.Flanaghan to crash over,B.Savory added the extras to make the score 19-17 to the hosts at half time.Coalville were holding their unbeaten opponents well into the second period until a harsh penalty was awarded for offside right in front of the posts 17-22.With 10 minutes to go Lions scored 2 tries to close out the game one of which was a blatant knock-on ignored by the official.Two serious injuries to Coalville brought on B.Toft and W.Clare to end the game 34-17 to the Lions.A gallant effort from Coalville who just ran out of steam towards the end to leave a flattering scoreline for the Lions.Coalville next in action on 21st Jan home to West Bridgeford kick-off 2.15pm.