Lymm RFC v Hull RFC – Saturday 1st March 2025

As ever, it gives me enormous pleasure to welcome you to Beechwood for our 20th league fixture (and 10th home game) of the season. I would also like to extend an exceedingly warm welcome to our visitors today, Hull RUFC.

Some of you may be aware that Tom Shard was stretchered off the pitch last weekend at Fylde with a broken ulna and radius, which were pinned on Tuesday. He is now recuperating at home and I am sure that everyone at Lymm wishes Tom all the best for a speedy recovery. I would also like to express my thanks to the medical team at Fylde and our own physios who gave Tom the best possible support immediately following his injury.

After a truly magnificent run of 11 games unbeaten, followed by a defeat at Sheffield and then another run of 4 successive victories, we have lost our last 3 games – to Tynedale (33-47), Otley (31-7) and Fylde (45-17). Even though that run has been described as “a bit of a mini crisis” we must remember that, in the phrase coined by sociologist Alvin Ward Gouldner: ”context is everything”. Manchester Rugby Club are the current holders of the unenviable record of the longest ever losing streak in club rugby. They finally laid to rest the ‘record breaking’ ghost of eighty-seven consecutive league losses, spanning just more than three years, on 24th March 2012.

As you can imagine, our splendid season to date has caught the eye of other teams in our League, who have taken a very keen interest in our results. With that in mind, I thought that you might be interested to know that only this week I received an email from someone at another club in this league which said: “We watched with excitement as you challenged Leeds and Sheffield and I for one have been disappointed as the underdogs have fallen away in the last few weeks”

I have no doubt that we will re-discover our early season form in the weeks to come and think that Paul Nolan, in his match report for the Fylde game, summed up our current position really well – “Lymm have been through a tough period, but the team continues to show determination and, despite all the personnel and positional changes, glimpses of the class that sees them ride high in the league. The positive team culture, undoubted natural ability and high-quality coaching will see this exciting young team bounce back soon”

Following last weekend’s defeat at Fylde, Director of Rugby, Adam Fletcher said that it had been “another tough day at the office.  For 20 minutes we controlled possession and territory but couldn’t convert pressure to points.  The injury to Tom Shard impacted us heavily, as we lost shape and structure.  Fylde got their tails up in the 2nd half and dictated the game.  They were good for the 5 points. I’m hopeful that the team will get a much-needed boost of fit bodies next week.  We will need them as we know the danger that Hull will pose.”

Today, we lie 3rd in the League (with 76 points) and Hull are 10th (with 40 points) but we know how competitive this league is and relative position is no indicator of the possible outcome of any fixture. For example, on 1st February Billingham (who are currently bottom of the League) beat the side who vanquished us last weekend, Fylde 39-17 and the week after that, Fylde were beaten by Harrogate, who are 2nd from bottom.

When we played Hull earlier in the season, we came away with an 18-24 victory against what our match report described as “an abrasive, physical and powerful Hull squad”. That physicality was reflected in the 15-3 penalty count, with Lymm’s excellent second half performance inducing increasingly desperate defending on Hull’s part, which caused the penalty count against them to mount.

Hull’s record over the last five fixtures is Won 2; Lost 3, which is identical to ours (albeit that 2 of Hull’s losses were against Leeds and Sheffield) but they have only won two on the road this season (against HulI Ionians and Wharfedale) so we can only hope that their travel sickness continues this week !

In other Lymm rugby news, our 2nd XV had no fixture last weekend but in a fierce battle at Beechwood, Lymm 3rd XV defeated Macclesfield 3rd XV, 26 – 21.  This weekend Lymm 2s are at home to Preston Grasshoppers 2s KO 1pm and Lymm 3s are away at Knutsford KO 3pm.