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Sutton Coldfield 24 - Droitwich 24

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Droitwich played their part in a gripping and highly entertaining top of the table clash on Saturday, before scoring in the final minute of injury time to share the spoils.

The home side started the more dynamically, driving at the Droitwich line to force a series of attacking scrums. It was from here that they were able to force their way over to open the scoring. The tricky conversion was also added.

Droitwich saw this as a wake up call and began to make inroads into the home defence, with the excellent Phil Horton to the fore. A penalty attempt by Duncan Hughes fell short in the stiff breeze, before superb work by centre Matt Blackmore found Horton in space to dive under the posts. Hughes added the conversion.

Sutton attacked once more and always looked dangerous, but fine defensive efforts by back row forwards James Davies and Nick Godfrey kept the scores level.

The second half began much as the first, with Sutton Coldfield pressurising the Spa line, before a long miss-pass saw the home winger squeeze over in the corner to give the home side the advantage once more.

Not to be outdone Droitwich came back strongly, with strong running by James Shewell and fellow front row forward Dean Goddard, before a well timed pass by Hughes saw Jonny Critchlow burst through the defence to score. Hughes added the conversion.

More strong work saw Jon Andrews feed scrum half Steve Poke to set up a good attacking position, before hooker James Protherough thundered over to extend the Droitwich lead.

The game now entered a thrilling final quarter with both sides giving everything they had. Sloppy defence by the Spa side saw them concede a line out close to their line. The well drilled Sutton side secured possession before driving over the Droitwich line.

More poor play by Droitwich saw an aimless kick fielded and ran back by the lively home full back — missed tackles allowed the home scrum half to force his way over. The difficult conversion was added to give the home side a 24 points to 19 lead with five minutes remaining.

Droitwich threw all they had at Sutton, but their defence seemed to have held firm, before Critchlow, once again, penetrated the home ranks to throw a long pass out to Ross Coombes who accelerated to squeeze over in the corner with the very last play of the game. Hughes had a chance to snatch a victory but the conversion from the touchline drifted wide.

The draw did more for Sutton’s title aspirations than it did Droitwich’s, although the Spa side can feel proud of their efforts and must now fully focus on next week’s hugely significant cup clash with Vipers of Leicester.

After the match a philosophical captain, Dean Goddard, added “We had our chances, as did Sutton. Overall a draw was a fair result as both sides gave their all. We will have no problems focusing our efforts on to next week’s cup clash.”

Match photos.

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