LEDBURY LIONS impressed new coach Andy Isaac with a dominant display against Bream to kickstart the season.

The Teams came out to a minute’s applause in respect of a club stalwart, Tony Wargent, who sadly passed away early in the week.

With Bream fielding a full complement of 20 players, the Lions were at 18 men due to a couple of late injury dropouts.

The game started brightly, with the Lions playing some great ball-in-hand and were quick to apply early pressure with the ball moving across the field from a line out and were unlucky not to score on the right-hand side of the field.

With the Lions scrum holding firm and able to contend with the Bream pack, there were some great individual tries from John Parker and Charlie Pallet with both getting a brace each.

Zak Bonfield was awarded a fantastic solo try after some nifty footwork and a cheeky give-and-go to show the opposition a swift pair of heels.

With the ever-accurate kicking of veteran Paul Clayton adding to the tally tries, the Lions led 38-0 at halftime.

The second half saw some strategic changes by the proactive Andy Isaac, who moved a few players around and during the half time huddle.

With the smell of victory in their nostrils, the Lions came out roaring and had Bream pinned back in their 10-meter zone from kick off.

Bream eventually put the ball over the Lions’ heads after an infringement and were awarded a penalty, for a line out.

The ball was quickly recycled by the Lions, and they were again camped on the Bream 5-meter line.

The reward for this was a great try from the massive John Parker for his third of the game. The game progressed on and the Lions were awarded another try by Josh Hill to take the score to 52-0.

Bream then had a flurry of activity and scored a great converted try to take it to 52-7.

This was made 59-7 very shortly thanks to a magnificent try by a strong running Dan Smith.

The game was frantic now, and some sloppy passing by the Lions gave the Bream team another try, unconverted, to bring the score to 59-12.

At this point, the Bream side seemed to lose focus and the Lions put another converted try from the fantastic Charlie Pallet.

There followed a very quick converted try for Josh Eales and another for the quick footed Luke Clarke to take the final score to 80-12.

This was a fine display of rugby, by a much-rejuvenated Lions side who are showing a great deal of promise of what they can achieve this season.

Special thanks must go to the Lions Captain, Khayd Saxelby, who through constant communication with his team, played a fantastic Captains game.