Lymm RFC v Sheffield RFC – Saturday 5th April 2025

As ever, it gives me enormous pleasure to welcome you to Beechwood for our 24th league fixture (and penultimate home game) of the season. I would also like to extend an exceedingly warm welcome to our visitors today, Shefield RUFC.

Like 6.45 million other viewers, I was captivated by “Adolescence” which was released on Netflix in March. For those who haven’t seen Adolescence yet (and, if not, I would urge you to do so) it centres on a 13-year-old schoolboy who is arrested for the murder of a girl in his school. Each of its four episodes was shot in one continuous take, which alone makes for compulsive viewing. As The Guardian review noted, ‘Adolesence highlights the ways in which the “manosphere” (Andrew Tate et al) has affected adolescent boys’.

By coincidence, perhaps, also in March, Sir Gareth Southgate gave The Richard Dimbleby Lecture and expressed his concern that ‘callous, manipulative and toxic influencers’ are taking the place of traditional father figures in society and contributing to mental health issues among young men. One alarming statistic which jumped out at me on that subject is that in 2025, boys are more likely to own a smartphone than to live with their dad. Both Adolescence and Gareth Southgate’s lecture made me reflect on what, in my view, is the very positive way in which clubs like ours provide young children (boys and girls) with the positive role models that are absent in the lives of some of their peers. Prominent on our website are the words “Your Club, Our Community, Their Future!” and like many rugby clubs, Lymm understands the importance of (and impact upon) the RFU’s core values (teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline, and sportsmanship) on the lives of our children. As a parent of 2 boys who have played rugby at Lymm from U6s to Senior Colts, I still reflect with pride the way in which both my children and their teammates have grown up to be polite and respectful young men, who are a credit to both their families and the Club. So, amongst all the noise and hullabaloo that surrounds senior rugby, we should perhaps take a moment to reflect on what a fantastic job the Mini & Junior Section at Lymm has done over the years and continues to do.

Our last home fixture was against Billingham and, without any disrespect to our opponents that day, is a game that I had mentally pencilled in as a win. But, as Wharfedale noted in their pre-match review for our last game on 22 March, ‘There can be few more remarkable enigmas at our level of rugby than next Saturday’s visitors Lymm. Until six weeks ago … they were a country mile ahead of the rest of us mere mortals. They are the only side to have inflicted defeat on Leeds, and the only side in many years to have inflicted on Wharfedale the indignity of a blank, defeating us 26-0 back in November … but last week’s defeat at home to Billingham (22-35) … was a severe shock to the entire division’.

Our last game against Wharfedale produced the “cracking encounter” that The Rugby Paper expected but, we came out second best, losing 44-27 and as our Match Report said ‘Wharfedale deserved their win as they produced the more dominant rugby through both their forwards and backs. The Lymm players competed to the end with the young players acquitting themselves well and they will learn from the experience’.

When we played Sheffield last December, it was our first League defeat of the season. Our opponents today currently lie 2nd in the League and are no doubt expecting to come away with a win but, as we saw when we played Billingham, it’s a funny old game …

Finally, those of you who visit our Club website will have seen the obituary (written lovingly by Peter Cornelia) of Roger Roberts, who was a founding member and the first Club Captain of Lymm RFC in its inaugural 1960/61 season. Roger will be remembered in our toast to Absent Friends at today’s pre-match lunch and we will have a one-minute silence in his memory prior to kick off. Please take a moment to remember Roger today because, as a Club, we all stand on the shoulders of our founding members, without whom we would not be here today.

All that leaves me to say (as usual) is that I wish all the teams, their coaches and support staff, who represent Lymm at every level, from Minis & Juniors up to Senior Rugby the best of luck this weekend.