Droitwich 18 - Vipers 0

Saturday 12th January 2008

Droitwich progressed to the last 16 of the EDF Senior Vase with a disciplined display at the Memorial Ground on Saturday, overcoming Vipers of Leicester.

Droitwich progressed to the last 16 of the EDF Senior Vase with a disciplined display at the Memorial Ground on Saturday, overcoming Vipers of Leicester.

The visitors had a big weight advantage in the forwards and used this to good effect driving the Droitwich eight down field on a number of occasions, this resulted in the home side being penalised.

But once the ball was moved away from the forwards the Droitwich defence was sound, with Craig Mortlemans and Matt Blackmore putting in some typically robust tackles. Once Droitwich did win the ball, a sharp break by Jonny Critchlow found Ross Coombes and Phil Horton in support. This attack forced Vipers to infringe. Duncan Hughes kicked the resulting penalty for the Spa side to take the lead.

The remainder of the first half was a fragmented affair with both sides failing to get any real advantage. Hughes missed a couple of penalty kicks, and Vipers were down to fourteen men at one point as one of their players spent ten minutes in the sin bin.

The visitors looked to use their heavy pack, but excellent defensive work by Jon Andrews, coupled with the intelligent play of fellow veteran Nick Godfrey kept the home side’s noses in front.

The second half saw Droitwich up the tempo, with strong running by Hughes giving the Spa side territorial advantage. James Davies carried the ball well to feed James Shewell, who had an outstanding game, to feed scrum half Steve Poke. Again Vipers infringed—and saw another player yellow-carded— and Hughes slotted the kick to double the lead.

Droitwich now seemed to be in control, but the slender six point lead could not be added to—Droitwich came close with a number of opportunities, but could not quite find the score.

A fine diagonal kick by Blackmore found the lively Coombes to make ground. Captain Dean Goddard took the ball forward, as did Andrews, before a well timed pass by Hughes found the irrepressible Critchlow on his inside who then cut a good line to score under the posts. Hughes added the simple conversion, which seemed to settle the tie. Vipers came back strongly, but they were unable to find any rhythm due to the excellent tackling by Davies and the Droitwich midfield.

A neat kick by Poke saw the outstanding Horton take the ball up the touchline to find Godfrey in support, before the visitors strayed off side. Hughes kicked the ball to the corner and from the resulting lineout the pack drove towards the Vipers line for hooker James Protherough to get the final touch down with five minutes remaining of the game.

The final few minutes were played in the Spa half as the visitors tried desperately to get a consolation score, but yet again the Droitwich defence held firm

This had not been one of Droitwich’s finest displays of the year, but nevertheless it was an excellent display of winning cup rugby, featuring solid defence and strong ball carrying.

After the game try scorer Jonny Critchlow was clearly delighted as he added, “Obviously we are very happy to be in the next round. We really played as a team today with every single member of the squad contributing hard graft and total commitment.”

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