Birmingham Lions

On Sunday 2nd May, the Birmingham Lions took on the Hertfordshire Hurricanes to be crowned the Southern Champions of BUAFL and to book a place in the national championship game. This matchup was the first game to take place on the new 3G-astro pitch on the Metchley playing fields – which ensures a fast, even surface allowing the game to be played at a higher standard.

The game came a long time after the Lions’ clash against UWE Bullets, but it was the Lions that came out the blocks with a bang.

Herts won the toss and elected to receive, but with their very first play their QB was strip-sacked by Kyle Burrows with the ball collected by Dan Conroy and taken into the endzone for a touchdown. Herts had a little more luck on the next drive but eventually the ball made its was to the Birmingham offence. After making some good yards, some questionable penalty flags were thrown against the Lions’ who found themselves backed up near their own endzone. Then, on third down, Tristan Varney aired the ball out to Ben Brown who hauled in the catch to go the remainder of the pitch (72 yards) for the score. The second quarter didn’t go all Birmingham’s way though; Herts bagged 2 TD’s of their own when some big passes over the top and some strong running gave them momentum. There was still time before the break for Varney to hook up one more time with Ben Brown, this time for a 20-yard completion good for 6. The scores at the break were 21-12.

The second half was somewhat of an anticlimax compared to the first. One really impressive drive from the lions saw Ben Brown bag himself a hat trick of TD’s on the day – but on the whole both teams struggled to consistently move the ball on offence. Birmingham did manage to move the ball somewhat through Andy Watson both at slot receiver and from the backfield and this proved valuable as it kept the lions D off the field so they could catch their breath and make adjustments. By adapting schemes the Lions managed to largely stop Herts’ 1-2 running attack, and when the Herts QB went deep in the second half it resulted in an interception more often than a completion. The second half saw picks come for Kit Lawson, Dan Hampton and Dan Conroy who had a great game making plays on special teams and defence all over the field. With the Lions 4th TD making the score line that bit more comfortable the Lions ran the ball in the final quarter before taking a knee, with the final score of 28-12 to the Lions.

In truth it was a pretty rusty performance from Birmingham, who will have lots to work on this coming week. Most importantly though, it was a win and it sees them through to the BUAFL National Championship game at Northampton (Sixfields stadium) this Sunday 9th May. Even though it’s a busy time of the year all support at the final would be much appreciated. If the Lions can beat Loughborough (in a rematch of xpLosION earlier in the year) then they will become back-to-back national champions – an achievement no Lions team has ever managed before.

United we stand, divided we fall, we shall not be denied.