St Leonards 1st XV started their cup campaign with a win against travelling side Warley. The Saints had a slow start being on the back foot in their own territory. Warley took advantage and managed to convert a penalty giving them a Three-Nil lead.  St Leonards held possession in Warley’s territory but didn’t take advantage of it and went further down as Warley struck a drive from The Saints twenty-two and drove the ball over the try line for their first try of the match. With St Leonards down Eight-Nil they had to change the tempo of the game and start to play some decent rugby ,they took this into their stride and scrambled back three points from Warley’s poor discipline and Scrum Half Rich Farrow converted the penalty . A break off the back of a scrum from Rich took saints into Warley territory and a good offload set Andy Lester up for saints first try of the match this brought the scores level Ten-Ten. St Leonards went into the lead for the first time in the match as they converted a penalty kick late in the first half. Half time St Leonards 13 Warley 10. The second half saw two yellow cards one of which was from Warley’s number 8, The Saints took this into their advantage and converted another penalty taking them comfortably into the lead. The second yellow card meant St Leonards were without number 7 Richard Lewis, Warley converted a penalty taking them into a three point range. With Warley adding extra pressure St Leonards were on the back foot for the later part of the game but solid defence lead by Andrew Keeling meant Warley couldn’t break through the saint’s defensive line. The Saints ended the game with shouts of joy as they managed to get through the first round of the cup.

The Game ended St Leonards 16 Warley 13.

Next Saturday St Leonard 1st XV travel to Telford for their third league game of the season.