HEREFORD  19 - 14  OLD LAURENTIANS

Wyeside, 25 January 2003

Powergen Midlands 2 West League

Hereford took on the front-runners of the league and showed commitment and strong mental attitude to run out worthy winners in a pulsating and exciting game. This was only Laurentians second loss of the season and although still clear favourites to win the league they know that they were beaten by a better side.

Laurentians started strongly and literally came out fighting. In the first 10 minutes there were numerous off the ball incidents, which the referee ignored but the young Hereford side decided to continue to play Rugby. Obviously the away team had planned to put Hereford off their game, but the steadying robust influence of second row players Chris Fairley and Phil Jones meant that Hereford’s game plan stood the test.

After only 10 minutes the Hereford pack were penalised for offside and the divisions leading kicker Dave Evans made no mistake to take a 3 point lead. Hereford went back on the attack with Matthew Pritchard and Will Mcquaid always in the thick of the action and a sweetly worked move from the backs allowed centre Ceiron Griffiths to break through and touch down near the posts. Osborne duly converted. 7-3.

Hereford then dominated for most of the 1^st half and Osborne had several opportunities to kick Hereford into a commanding lead but just could not hit the target. Some good work from the forwards set up good quick ball which lead to Jeremy Grisman extending Herefords lead with an unconverted try. 12-3.

The referee by this time was playing his own game and a string of penalties to Laurentians allowed Evans to kick a couple and put them back into contention.

This seemed to spur them on and a move from backs to forward put Ian Wallis in over the corner for the away team to lead 12- 14 at the break. An analysis of the first half gave Hereford at least a dozen opportunities to score, whereas Laurentians had one and took it.

The second half was much the same as the first but this time Herefords defence, on the odd occasion it was needed, stood firm. From yet another assault on the Laurentians line, Will Mcquaid, Hereford’s player of the game, popped up to score what proved to be the decisive try. Osborne kicked the conversion to make it 19-14.

The last 20 minutes saw 18 of them inside the Laurentians 22 where scrum and line out gave Hereford a good supply of ball. Hereford were awarded 3 penalties 5 metres from the line and opted to scrummage. Time and time again the Laurentians defence held up by fringing offside but finally the referee decided to yellow card the Laurentians second row after warning him twice, 5 minutes into injury time. Laurentians escaped the ultimate sanction of a penalty try and were able to secure a ball on their line and punt it down near the Hereford’s 22 metre line.

From the line out Laurentians launched one of their few attacks of the half to make it a nail biting finish, but stout defending, particularly from Des White and Richard Mayson kept the Hereford line in tact.

Hereford’s President John Watkins said, “Although it was a nail biting finish we should really have wrapped it up by half time. We were by far the better side in all departments. This is a young exciting team that has now opened up the league table at the top. Our aim is to win all of our remaining games, which we can and should do. We are learning as we progress and we are on schedule to become a good side for the first time in 6 years. The commitment of the players and their willingness to learn and improve themselves makes them a pleasure to be involved with.”