L&Y throw it away in final stages
Lowestoft & Yarmouth 30, Old Streetonians 34: For the second time at home this season L&Y conspired to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, gifting OS their first win.
Having seven key players missing was no excuse because L&Y had total control after 60 minutes with a 25-10 lead. Four gifted tries later they had lost the game, with the only saving grace being two bonus points.
Last season the final quarter of a match was L&Y's strongest, but the worrying trend in the last three games has been their loss of composure in this period. The rise in standard in their new league is partly the reason, but the team and coaches Scott Nelson and Marc Thomas have much work to do.
Old Streets were on the board first with a converted try. L&Y replied with a break instigated by Russ Wilkinson and Josh Fewkes that forced an easy penalty for Dave Tiueti to convert. OS came back with a penalty but L&Y evened the scores when Russ Chapman released Tiueti to send Dave Palmer over, Chapman converting.
L&Y started the second half in determined fashion and Myles McAlone continued his scoring run by snatching the ball from the OS catchers and racing unopposed to the line. The hosts quickly confirmed their superiority when Nelson dummied the defence and nipped through for the try. Tiueti converted and added another penalty to increase the gap to 15 points.
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Then it all started to go wrong. First Nelson threw an intercepted pass and then the OS fly-half hacked through a loose ball from an L&Y attack deep in his half and scooped up the ball and score.
With five minutes to go, OS found some space out wide in their own half and a combination of shoddy defence and good handling gave them another converted breakaway try and a surprise lead.
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In desperation, L&Y came flooding back and a massive driving maul took play to the OS line where Thomas managed to ground the ball under a pile of bodies, re-establishing a one point lead. OS attacked in the final seconds, after a knock on had been missed, and spun the ball wide where their winger was seemingly held up over the line, only for the try to be awarded.
