A very young Lincoln Colts team suffered a heavy defeat to a very good Kesteven side but the score was never going to the measure to judge the game by after more than a year since they were last able to play.
Throughout the match Lincoln's play at the break down was excellent with Aaron "Stretch-arm-strong" Homden reaching into the depths of many ruck to pluck out the ball, ably assisted by Sushan "small but mighty" Gupta and Owen "the mole" Randles as burrowing their way in to emerge with the pill.
There was also plenty of promise and power shown in Lincoln's running and close support with Harry "The Prop Formerly Known As" Prince, Eamon "Amos" O'Boyle, Ollie "Bam-Bam" Dickson-Smith and Liam "I've hit the gym 87 times this week" Christopher all carrying well and making good yards.
But Lincoln's defensive rustiness showed and Kesteven made most of it with some powerful running of their own and moving the ball wide well to keep scoring on a regular basis.
Lincoln did register a score in either half, the first started from a freekick just inside the Lincoln half and taken on by the forwards. I was quickly worked to hooker Adam Rogers who broke several tackles before displays his deceptive pace to race down the wing and perform, what no doubt in his mind was the most elegant and gracefully swallow drive to ever grace a rugby field. To those watching the uncharitable would describe as more of belly flop, I shall describe more akin to a baby albotros attempting it first take-off and landing. Joe "Eat, Drink and be" Merry's touchline conversion drift just wide of the post.
Adam " The Albotros" Rogers also claimed Lincoln's 2nd half try which, this time, was converted.
Lincoln's backline had few opportunities to show what they could do offensively and this was further hampered early in the 2nd half when fill-back Connor Smith, who was had an admirable game, had to come off injured. Despite that there were signs; Josh "Punching Above His Weight" Kendall distributed well and Tyron "Snake Hips" Peachey demonstrated what dangerous runner he can be.
Michael "Reminds Me of Someone Famous but I Can't Quite Think Who" Pryor was very unlucky to be stopped metres short after the ball was moved quickly along the back line for him to race race nearly half the length of the pitch hugging the touchline.
Jacob "J.K. (Rowling)" Kendall was also denied a try, not realising quite how close he was to the try line as he was dragged down and placed the ball back (perfectly) instead of stretching forward to score.
Jake "Hair-Bear" Sibbons and Ed "Howe-Ed" Howe both put in good all round displays.
Special thanks go to Tyler and Sonny playing up to boost the numbers. A baptism of fire for both but stepped up to the challenge.
Overall plenty to work on but plenty of promising signs and the faultless effort and commitment.
