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Droitwich 27 - Sutton Coldfield 11

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Droitwich turned in an excellent all round display to beat league leaders Sutton Coldfield at the Memorial Ground on Saturday. This was Sutton’s first reversal of the campaign and a victory Droitwich richly deserved.

The home side started at lightning speed and seemed to catch the visitors cold. Good running by James Shewell and Nick Godfrey, aided by excellent line-out work by Phil Horton, saw Droitwich attack the visitors' line. James Davies took the ball at pace from a line-out and crashed over for the opening score. Duncan Hughes added the conversion.

More Spa pressure saw Ross Coombes and Matt Jupp go close before quick ball was recycled for scrum half Steve Poke to throw a dummy and breeze over unopposed, again Hughes added the conversion.

This seemed to bring the visitors to life as they launched attacks of their own, but the home defence was excellent, with the peerless Davies leading the way, ably supported by Matt Blackmore and Jon Critchlow. Sutton's attempts at recovery were also hampered when their number eight was sent to the sin-bin for an infringement.

Sutton did manage to hit back with two penalty goals, before a good break by veteran Jon Andrews found Hughes in support. He threw a long pass to Blackmore, who intelligently drew three defenders to time a lovely pass to Craig Mortlemans to race over to increase the Spa lead.

Hughes added the very tricky conversion from the touchline. Hughes also had the last word of the half slotting a penalty from short range after a fine break by Sean Walker. A 24 points to six lead at half time was no more than Spa deserved for their efforts.

The visitors threw everything they could at Droitwich in the opening period of the second half, but again the defence held firm with the evergreen Nick Godfrey producing a vintage performance, turning possession over on a number of occasions.

The pressure did eventually tell, however, when Droitwich committed too many men to a ruck, this gave the visitors an over lap as they went over to reduce the arrears.

The remainder of the half saw Sutton trying to get back into the game, but Droitwich were content to play for territory with Hughes and Critchlow putting in some fine kicks.

Droitwich forced the visitors back into their ’22 and Hughes added another penalty to make the final score 27 points to 11.

Captain Dean Goddard hailed a fine team effort, but was particularly pleased with the forwards, adding “We really went up a gear today and played at pace and made very few mistakes. The defence was watertight and we always looked dangerous going forward. I really am proud of the team.”

Photos from the match courtesy of Rob Bray.

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