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Droitwich 32 - Cleobury Mortimer 8

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Droitwich beat Cleobury Mortimer on Saturday to round off a perfect league season in front of a large crowd at the Memorial Ground.

The hot weather and hard ground made the game an energy sapping one, but both teams dug deep and produced some good flowing rugby.

The home side opened the scoring when prop forward James Shewell broke from a driving maul to show a fine turn of pace to thunder over from 30 metres out.

Then a clever miss pass by Sean Walker, playing in the unfamiliar role of outside half due to the unavailability of the influential Duncan Hughes, found Richard Allen who strode over unopposed. Allen converted his own try.

More strong running by Droitwich, with Leon Hopkins and Mark Strutt being particularly effective, set up a position for Jimmy Richardson to make one of his trade mark runs, shrugging off two tacklers to increase the lead. Again Allen converted.

Cleobury, to their credit, did not give up, but attacked Droitwich through their effective three quarters. One such move saw their winger out pace the defence and score.

The home side had the last word of the half as Allen kicked a penalty.

From the re-start Droitwich were penalised and Cleobury reduced the lead with a penalty.

Clever kicking and running by scrum half, Steve Poke, saw Droitwich make ground up field. Nick Godfrey and James Davies were also very strong with the ball going forward.

After a series of attacking rucks the ball was passed wide to Hopkins who ran a superb out side line to scorch in for another try.

As the game came to a close both sides understandably tired and there were a number of errors on both sides.

Good approach work by Greg Garfield found Gavin Reese in support, who somehow found the energy to charge over in the corner. That ended the scoring and Droitwich were left to celebrate their finest ever league season, twenty two victories from twenty two starts.

Captain Dean Goddard was clearly delighted, but full of praise for his team adding “This all started with pre-season training, the work put in by all the players and coaching staff has been exceptional. To finish with a perfect record is an extraordinary achievement.”

This sentiment was echoed by Head Coach Danny Protherough, “We worked hard all season and never took anything for granted. I am very very proud of all those involved.”

Photos are in the gallery courtesy of Rob Bray.

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