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Old Leamingtonians 12 – Droitwich 34

Sunday, October 1, 2006

Droitwich maintained their unbeaten start to the season with a hard fought win in Leamington.

The home side had the weight advantage in the forwards and used this to good effect by disrupting Droitwich’s scrummage, although the visitors countered this by moving the ball quickly. The early exchanges were even and Droitwich took the lead with a Duncan Hughes penalty, before a well worked move at the front of a lineout found the Droitwich defence flat footed for the home side to score a try. In the final few minutes of the first half a good period of pressure by Droitwich saw Hughes manage to force his way over to give the visitors the lead.

The second period saw Droitwich go up a gear, and a fine catch off his own up and under by Ross Coombes saw the three quarters spring into action - Shaun Walker throwing a clever dummy and racing in under the posts.

Droitwich’s lineout was working well, with Phil Horton supplying a good ball to scrum half Steve Poke, who had an excellent game in both attack and defence. With Old Lems having to chase the game Droitwich were awarded a penalty which Walker converted to stretch their lead. The home side hit back with a try to give them a glimmer of home, but that was quickly cancelled out by Leon Hopkins who intercepted a loose pass to race 45 metres to score under the posts thus putting the game out of sight.

In injury time Droitwich kept piling on the pressure resulting in a score for Phil Horton as he was driven over the line by props James Shewell and Craig Goode. Hughes again added the conversion.

This was a hard fought win by the Spa side, which clearly delighted captain Dean Goddard, who added “this was a very hard battle, especially up front, but we stuck to our game plan and came away with a victory.”

Photos in the gallery.

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