1st XV - Droitwich: 12 - 34

Saturday, 30 September 2006

Leamingtonians battled gamely enough but in the end were forced to give best to a well-drilled outfit extending a perfect record to four matches.   A robust, often ill-tempered, encounter always shaped as heading Droitwich's way despite home skipper Andy Davies notching a 30th minute try to give his side the lead after Duncan Hughes had kicked the visitors ahead with a routine penalty.   Hughes, an experienced play-maker boasting a cv embracing Worcester, Stourbridge and Wales B before this summer's move to pastures new, soon edged his side back in front with an opportunist try which he converted himself and the Welshman went on to orchestrate a comfortable victory even though he was later dispatched to the sin-bin after getting involved in a nasty brawl which also saw short-fuse home flanker Lee Hardy red carded.   Any ambitions the Old Boys had of regaining the initiative were dashed seconds into the second half when a home clearance was plucked out of the air by Droitwich full-back Sean Walker who collected his own kick ahead and evaded some tepid attempts at tackling to dash through to touch down and leave Hughes with a simple conversion.   Hardy's dismissal made life doubly difficult for his team although scrum-half Aaron Dudley did offer a glimmer of hope with a close range try (converted by Alex Pain) shortly after Leon Walker had made light of Hughes's temporary absence with a visiting penalty success. The final 10 minutes were to prove embarrassing for the men from The Crofts. Within 10 seconds of joining the fray, replacement Simon Hemming's casual pass went straight to Leon Hopkins to leave the Droitwich No 11 with an unmolested cruise for a sucker try which Hughes converted. And with many of the home supporters heading towards the sanctuary of the bar, Droitwich finally dumped their Spa rivals with a try from lock Phil Horton to which, you might guess, the excellent Hughes added the game's final points. Successive defeats have knocked an early hole in a belief that the OL's can make an immediate return to Midlands Three West following last season's demotion. There was no lack of effort on Saturday and fly-half Simon Richards again underlined his worth after switching from Copsewood. But too many turn-overs, missed tackles and a worrying lack of attacking flair left them fair game for opponents who were superior throughout.

 

< Prev		Next >