Lymm RFC heavily beaten at Preston Grasshoppers

A WEEK off appears to have come at a good time for Lymm Rugby Club.

With no fixture slated until Macclesfield’s visit to Beechwood on November 13, director of rugby Adam Fletcher will be thankful for the chance to take stock.

Furthermore, it provides an opportunity for Lymm’s growing injury list to ease somewhat.

Their shortcomings were ruthlessly exposed by hosts Preston Grasshoppers on Saturday, with Fletcher’s side falling to a 66-14 thrashing.

“Preston showed us just how brutal this league can be if you’re not quite on your game,” Fletcher said.

“They were relentless and executed their game plan really well.

“It will be good to have a week off, review the last eight weeks and put in place a plan to beat Macclesfield.

“The break should also allow some of the growing list of injured players to recover.”

The writing was on the wall within the first 10 minutes on Saturday, with Lymm trailing by 14 points as well as losing Scott Redfern to the sin bin and Harry Martin to a head injury.

Preston piled on the points and were 33-0 up before the visitors got themselves on the scoreboard.

Having been awarded a penalty, the ball was popped to Kurt Riley and the prop forced his way over from five metres out, with Redfern adding the conversion.

Lymm then started the second half well but were penalised on their opponents’ try line, allowing Preston’s dominance to resume.

They scored four more tries in the second half as they displayed more clinical execution, but Lymm did at least have the final say.

Oli Higginson took a quick-tap penalty and had enough to cross the whitewash, with Redfern again converting.

Team: Kurt Riley, Rob Makin, Nick Ashton, James Yates, Aaron Rasheed, Joe Watson, Harry Martin, Oli Higginson; Gregor Watson, Will Leach; Paddy Jennings, Liam Connelly, Ben Stansfield, Alfie Simpson, Scott Redfern. Subs: Jordan Widdrington, Ed Morris, Jordan Houghton