Droitwich 11 - Brackley 6

Saturday 26th November 2005

Droitwich never found top gear in this Powergen Junior Vase fourth round encounter, but crucially progressed to the next round draw.

The visitors from Northamptonshire came to the Memorial Ground unbeaten and looked set to provide the Spa side’s toughest examination of the Cup campaign, but it was Droitwich who secured the lion’s share of possession.

In the first period Droitwich won good ball through Phil Horton at the lineout and Nick Godfrey in the loose, and set up camp in the visitors’ 22. But it was at this stage that Droitwich seemed to run out of ideas and crucially never made their territorial dominance pay. It was, in fact, the visitors who opened the scoring against the run of play with a penalty kick. Droitwich then hit back with a penalty by Matt Blackmore after a good run by Dean Goddard. Blackmore then doubled his tally with a long range effort.

The second period saw Droitwich surge forward and again set there stall out in the Brackley 22. But, once again, scoring proved difficult. Three times Droitwich were held up over the line, and several times they were penalised very near to the line. Brackley then produced a lively counter attack to win a penalty and level the scores at 6--6. A tense twenty minute period followed.

The Droitwich forwards produced some strong running, notably through number eight Jimmy Richardson. Richardson’s introduction at half-time had given the Droitwich pack some added aggression and directness.

The forwards, however, were probably guilty of ‘picking and going’ once or twice too often from the base of the ruck. Consequently the backs did not often get the quick ball they required and were largely ineffective. Credit, though, must go to Brackley who defended excellently and were very quick to close Droitwich down.

With the game seeming to be heading for extra time, skipper Godfrey used all of his experience to steal a Brackley ball on half way and offload to Richardson who made excellent ground. James Davis took the ball on further before spinning the ball out to Will Bolton who was in support. Bolton laid the ball off to fly-half Pete Murphy who held his run just long enough to commit the Brackley defence. Ben Cottrell took a short pass from Murphy and crashed over the line for what proved to be the winning score with less than two minutes on the clock. The jubilation of the Droitwich players reflected their frustration at having failed to finish off Brackley sooner.

Droitwich will be relieved to be in the hat for the fifth round draw, but also will be astonished how they could enjoy so mush possession and territorial advantage and only sneak home at the death. They will have to make better use of the ball if they are serious about progressing in the competition.

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