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Droitwich 49 – Shipston-on-Stour 0

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Droitwich maintained their unbeaten run on Saturday with an emphatic dismissal of visitors Shipston-on-Stour.

Droitwich played into the strong blustery gale and immediately made ground as the forwards drove strongly at the visitors, both the driving maul and scrummage were exceptionally effective, with teenagers James Shewell and debutant hooker Ben Skinner prominent. With a plentiful supply of quality ball, notably from Paul Sweeney in the lineout, Ross Coombes was able to give veteran Duncan Hughes the platform to control the game and get the backs running at the visitors. It was from a clever miss pass by Hughes that the effervescent Leon Hopkins found space on the opposite wing to squeeze home in the corner.

A series of superb rolling mauls saw Droitwich advance 50 metres up the pitch with Shipston having no option but to collapse. Hughes slotted the penalty and added a further strike shortly after when the visitors were penalised for killing the ball.

Droitwich then camped in the Shipston twenty-two and a catch and drive saw Nick Godfrey touch down. The visitors did rally but an interception on halfway saw impressive back row forward Phil Horton gallop home to score. Droitwich then lost skipper Jimmy Richardson, who was causing havoc with his strong running, to injury, but his replacement James Davies had an excellent game putting in some strong tackles.

With the elements in their favour in the second half Droitwich surged forward with Godfrey winning the ball to feed second row Jon Andrews to score. Hughes added the tricky conversion. More pressure saw Davies dive over. Then from deep inside their own half Droitwich launched the move of the game. Horton raced over halfway to find support from Teddy Jones and Sweeney, the ball was then passed to Hopkins who scorched home for his second.

Shipston rallied but could find no way through the Droitwich defence. The home side attacked again for Walker to score in the corner.

This had been a fine performance by Droitwich with both backs and forwards raising their game to a new level. Back row stalwart Nick Godfrey was pleased but downbeat after the game adding, “we played really well today and showed what we can do, but we can still greatly improve, and need to cut out the sloppy errors.”

Photos are in the gallery.

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