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Droitwich 26 - Kidderminster 5

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Droitwich turned in a disciplined performance on Saturday to see off local rivals Kidderminster in an entertaining league encounter at the Memorial Ground.

In excellent conditions both sides moved the ball, although a number of times the last pass went astray and prevented the score.

After twenty minutes Droitwich forced a scrum in the visitors' half after good approach work by Matt Jupp and James Shewell. From the scrum No.8 Jon Andrews picked up and timed a superb pass to centre John Critchlow, who out sprinted the defence to score the opening try. Duncan Hughes added the conversion.

Kidderminster hit back almost immediately forcing the Spa side back to their own line. Droitwich failed to deal with a lineout and the visitors crashed over to reduce the lead.

The home side not to be out done came back strongly. Matt Blackmore and Craig Mortlemans made good ground, Nick Godfrey went close before the ball was fed along the back line to Ross Coombes who raced over in the corner. Hughes added the excellent conversion from very wide out.

More Droitwich pressure forced a penalty near the Kidderminster line. From the resulting lineout Phil Horton went close before Steve Poke cleverly changed the line of attack to feed Harry Riley to go over for his first senior try.

The second half began with the visitors putting pressure on Droitwich, but the defence held firm before Droitwich advanced up the field. The final thirty minutes was played in the Kidderminster half as Droitwich were content to run down the clock. Good driving play by skipper Dean Goddard saw Sean Walker go close and Blackmore was unlucky not to gather a kick to score.

In the final moments replacement James Davies charged down a kick to race over for a try. The reliable Hughes converted.

Overall a pleasing display by Droitwich, capped by some excellent finishing. Skipper Goddard added, “I’m very happy with our display. The forwards worked hard and the backs looked sharp. Maybe we didn’t take all our chances, but we got the score when we needed to.”

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