Droitwich 10 - Old Laurentians 13

Sunday 9th September 2007

After remaining unbeaten for all of last year’s league season Droitwich fell at the very first hurdle of this year’s campaign, emphasising how tough life we be in a higher league.

Droitwich fielded a very young team and to their credit held their ground against much larger opponents, although struggled to maintain a steady supply of ball for the whole game.

The visitors had the better of the early exchanges, but the home defence was solid and never looked like being breached.

A strong break by Ross Coombes found Steve Poke in support. Old Laurentians killed the ball and gave Duncan Hughes the opportunity to put Droitwich ahead with a penalty kick.

This seemed to give the young Droitwich team confidence. Matt Jupp and Ben Thomas took the ball forward strongly before a loose pass was seized on by the visitors who raced in from fifty metres out to take the lead.

A typical strong run by Phil Horton saw Nick Godfrey in support to set up quick loose ball for the ever lively scrum half Poke to race over. Hughes added the conversion to give Droitwich a half time lead.

The second half proved much more difficult for the home side as they failed to win any decent possession at all and it was only superb defensive work out wide by Horton, Poke and Jamie Faulkener that prevented certain scores. Also strong tackling around the fringes by James Davies proved vital.

Under such pressure it was inevitable mistakes would be made, with the visitors equalising with a penalty kick. As the clock ticked down it looked like a draw would be the result, but a catalogue of errors from the rapidly tiring home side saw Old Laurentians pressure their try line.

A late penalty kick took Old Laurentians into the lead and Droitwich did not have time to respond. Final score: 10 - 13.

This was a disappointing opener by Droitwich, but one that puts things into perspective and illustrated the scale of the task ahead. An upbeat coach Danny Protherough added afterwards, “We had a young side and competed for large parts of the game. We are under no illusions as to how tough this season is going to be. We will be a better side for today.“

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