Chicago Lions 17 - Lincoln Park RFC D2 21

There will have been plenty of head-scratching on the Park touchline in the days before this one over the makeup of the bench, and by the final whistle those decisions had been thoroughly vindicated. It was the substitutes who supplied the energy and the crucial moments that ultimately dragged Park over the line in a contest that went right down to the wire.

A bright start, undone by its own success

Park began the afternoon very much in control, stringing together phase after phase and sticking rigidly to their structure through long spells of possession. In hindsight, it proved something of a false dawn — as the game wore on, handling errors began to creep in with greater frequency, a reminder that territory and phase count mean little without the composure to finish what they set up.

That early platform did produce the opening score, however, Cooley finishing from close range after nine minutes to get Park on the board. Up front, the front row of Melody, Leyman and, in particular, Robinson ran hard throughout and racked up carry after carry, while Bricteux was his usual menace at the breakdown, seeming to take up permanent residence over the ball whenever the faintest sniff of a turnover presented itself.

Park's second try was pure opportunism. Jahner charged down an attempted clearance kick deep in Lions territory and, quick enough to react before anyone in grey could recover, scooped up the loose ball to score under the posts.

A shaky end to the half

From a position of real control, though, Park stumbled towards the break, conceding two tries in quick succession late in the first half. Only missed conversions from the Lions kept the arithmetic in Park's favour, the visitors clinging to a four-point lead at the interval that, on the balance of that closing spell, felt more fortunate than deserved.

Lions edge ahead, the game turns attritional

The Lions duly completed the turnaround eleven minutes into the second half, finishing off a long break down the right when their forwards took over with a series of short, punishing carries to force their way over. From there the contest became a grinding, attritional affair, with neither side able to trouble the scoreboard for a long stretch. Park came closest through Cooley, a scintillating break that promised a try of real quality before a knock-on, reaching for the line, denied him at the very last.

The bench turns the tide

It was in this stalemate that Park's substitutes began to earn their inclusion. Rottiers came on and set about scything down Lions runner after Lions runner, while Murphy, introduced at tighthead, showed off hands as reliable as his scrummaging, stealing two Lions lineouts and picking off an interception besides. That interception arrived soon after a sliced Park penalty that had  threatened for a moment to be the mistake that finally killed off any hope of a comeback.

A finish worth the wait

Instead, Park found one more twist. A ruck won wide on the left gave Chrisos the platform to find Finnegan storming onto the ball, and the fullback crashed over under the posts to restore the lead in the closing stages. From the restart, Park's forwards simply took control, rumbling through phase after phase for the best part of two minutes to see the clock, and the game, out.

The verdict

A narrow win, and far from a flawless one, but a victory earned in the truest sense — through composure under pressure, smart use of the bench, and no shortage of heart when the contest threatened to slip away. Park will look back on the handling lapses and the concessions either side of half-time with some frustration, but the character shown to close the game out will matter far more in the long run.