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Old Halesonians 7 – Droitwich 10

Monday, February 5, 2007

Droitwich consolidated their position at the head of Midlands Division 4 West (South) on Saturday with an exceptionally hard fought victory at fellow promotion chasers Old Halesonians.

In ideal conditions the visitors made the early running with the forwards producing a series of driving mauls. It was from such a move that the excellent James Davies touched down.

More good work by the Spa forwards saw scrum half Steve Poke dart up the blind side to find support from the ubiquitous back row forward Phil Horton, who in turn fed skipper Jimmy Richardson to surge over to double the lead.

Old Halesonians then came into the game and laid siege to the Droitwich line. The defence held firm until Davies was harshly sent to the sin bin for an offside infringement. This enabled the home side to sneak over for a converted try to cut the arrears to three points.

The second half followed a similar pattern with the Droitwich pack making good ground. The three quarters also came more into the game with Ross Coombes, Ben Cottrell and Sean Walker all making ground and kicking intelligently.

Both sides threw all they could into the game, but stalemate seemed inevitable with the home side’s attacks meeting solid defence and Droitwich’s efforts often ending in error. Droitwich almost broke the deadlock as effervescent winger, Mark Strutt, just failed to gather Cottrell’s kick ahead.

The final quarter was nerve racking, but to be honest, Droitwich comfortably hung on to claim a deserved victory, which moves them six points clear at the top of the table.

After the game a delighted man of the match Phil Horton added “it was probably our toughest test of the season, but we showed how far we’ve come, and despite putting ourselves under pressure, we came away with a win.”

Photos are now in the gallery.

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