Leamington 22 Old Leamingtonians 16: Byrne’s last-gasp try secures derby victory for Leamington

In the openings salvos, both sides proved solid in the set scrum and neither gave much away in defence as they sized each other up.

The game was 20 minutes old before either line was threatened, with Spa’s John Raby on hand to put in a vital tackle.

However, OLs continued to press and, following a series of forward mauls, back-rower Oli Burnham forced his way over for the opening try. Angus Rose added the extras to open up a seven-point lead.

Leamington tried to gain some momentum and debutant Rich Smith made a couple of eyecatching runs in a promising spell for the hosts which was rewarded with a Tom Secher penalty.

Old Leamingtonians responded well and when tempers became frayed, both sides lost a man to the sin-bin.

The visitors continued to finish the half the stronger, with only desperate defending preventing them from doubling their try-count.

The pressure told, though, with Rose adding two penalties to give his side a 13-3 interval lead.

The start of the second period saw a turnaround, with Spa, helped by the introduction of Chris Murphy at centre, now dictating the tempo.

OLs were struggling to cope with Murphy’s direct running, often deploying two or more defenders to stop him.

And, with Alex Carroll and Danny Ruyssevelt linking up well, the momentum was now with the hosts.

Spa went close to scoring in the corner but the final pass, meant for Liam Byrne, just failed to connect.

However, they did not have to wait long for their reward.

The impressive Secher made the initial break and found Carroll in support, with the two engineering Leamington to the visitors’ line to allow Murphy to force his way over.

Secher added the conversion.

Spa continued to force the issue and when Smith took a pass from Byrne to score in the corner, they had the lead for the first time of the afternoon.

Both teams sensed they could win it and an infringement by Leamington allowed Rose to convert the penalty to give his side a slender 16-15 lead.

Old Leamingtonians were forced back into their 22 as Spa pressed for a match-winning score, but strong defence from the visitors meant they preserved their one-point advantage until time added on.

With the full-time whistle imminent, OLs failed to find touch with a relieving kick and the clearance was fielded by Secher.

The fly-half made the intial break to catch the visitors cold and then combined with the supporting Danny Kane to feed the ball to Byrne who raced in under the posts.

Secher added the extras and Spa were in no mood to relinquish the lead again.