Dunlop 13 - Droitwich 29

Sunday, 14th January, 2007

Droitwich travelled to Coventry on Saturday to take on fellow promotion candidates Dunlop, who were defending an unbeaten home league record.

The home side had the advantage of the strong wind in the first period, but it was Droitwich who started the brighter with forwards Jon Andrews, Matt Jupp and Greg Garfield taking the ball to the opposition. The pressure led to a penalty, which Duncan Hughes converted from a tricky angle.

More good work by the visitors saw them camp in the Dunlop ‘22, and a good lineout take by Phil Horton enabled Danny Protherough to crash over from short range.

Dunlop came back into the contest, but a turn over on the half way line saw Ben Cottrell put in a speculative kick for Jim Richardson to gather and gallop home to score. Hughes added the conversion. Dunlop rallied and closed the deficit with a penalty to make the half time score 15 points to 3.

Droitwich began the second period with the wind at their backs, which Hughes and Cottrell used to kick the ball deep into the Dunlop half. Possession was won close to the home line. Hughes threw a clever dummy and crashed over to extend Droitwich’s lead.

Dunlop, to their credit, came back strongly forcing Droitwich deep into their half. Fine defence by centres Ross Coombes and Sean Walker kept them at bay until a flowing move saw the Dunlop full back score under the posts.

Droitwich regained their composure as captain Richardson made a sharp break. Hughes was in support and raced in from 40 metres out.

This had not been a vintage performance from Droitwich, but was one that will satisfy them greatly since it maintains their unbeaten run and keeps them at the top of the table, a point Director of Rugby, Jon Andrews was keen to stress, “We played decent rugby in difficult conditions, but more importantly we came away with a win. To still be unbeaten is a superb achievement.”

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