Lots more Lions on the prowl in Bretton Park on Saturday

“It was a monumental effort getting here and we’ve always said we’ll enjoy every minute of competing at this level,” said Lions chairman Andy Moore.

“National League Two is the fourth level of English club rugby and we’re proud to have been the only Peterborough club ever to have played at it.

“We may lose more often than we win but one thing we never do is lie down. On the whole I think we’ve done ourselves proud. We’ve never been annihilated and teams know they’ve been in a game when they play us.

“We’ve got four games left and we’re not about to roll over. We’ll keep fighting until the bitter end even though we’re staring relegation in the face.”

The fight on Saturday is the battle of the Lions as the Leicester version arrive at Solstice Park (3pm) looking to complete the double after winning 35-17 in Leicester in December.

The Bretton-based Lions go into the match on the back of a 45-33 defeat at second-bottom Macclesfield last Saturday.

Moore added: “Macclesfield still believe they can survive and played like a team fighting for their lives. They came at us with all guns blazing right from the start and their tenacity overwhelmed us. We couldn’t handle it and before we knew where we were we were 45-7 down.

“We came back with four second-half tries and if there’d been another 10 minutes to go we might well have nicked it. Who knows?”

Kaz Henderson raced in for a hat-trick of tries with the other two coming from Tom Lewis and Tom Gulland.

Borough and Oundle both cruised to big wins on Saturday when playing teams in relegation trouble in Midlands Division One.

Borough, for whom Sam Crooks, Stuart Day, Zak McClure, Ross Chamberlain and George Offer were outstanding, beat Leighton Buzzard 33-12 with tries by McClure (2), Crooks, Day and Chamberlain.

Oundle were at home to rock-bottom Melton Mowbray and cantered home 52-7 with tries from Luke Sharpley, Will Carrington, James Reid, Harry WInch, Alex Efford, Evan Griffiths, Robb Shingles and Louis Daviks.

Stamford’s promotion hopes in Midlands Division Three East (South) suffered an expected setback as they lost 41-22 at St Neots. They’ve now slipped to third, two points behind Leicester Forest and six points behind table-toppers Northampton Casuals with three games left to play.

Borough Ladies lost their last league game of the season at Fengate on Sunday 52-14 to Olney after running into a spot of card trouble.

In the first half Sarah Ashton ran through a ruck and was adjudged by the referee to have stamped on an Olney player and she received a red card. And then in the second half they lost Anita Phillips to the sin-bin, also for an alleged stamping offence.

Steph Warlow and Emma Byatt were voted Borough’s back and forward of the match respectively.

Borough ended up finishing second in Midlands Division One and that was a fine effort in their first season at a new level after winning promotion last term.

FIXTURES

SATURDAY MARCH 30

ENGLISH CLUBS CHAMPIONSHIP

National League Division Two North: Lions v Leicester Lions.

Midlands Division One (East): Lutterworth v Peterborough, Northampton Old Scouts v Oundle.

Midlands Division Two East (South): Huntingdon v Market Harborough.

Midlands Division Three East (South): Bourne v Queens, Stockwood Park v Stamford.

Midlands Division Three East (North): Tupton v Spalding.

Midlands Division Four East (South): Bedford Swifts v Stamford College Old Boys, Aylestone St James v Thorney, Deepings v Northampton Mens Own.

London Division Three Eastern Counties: Wisbech v Crusaders.