HEREFORD  22 - 31  MALVERN

Wyeside, Saturday 13 September 2003, 3pm

Powergen Midlands 2 West League

The Malvern forwards then took charge and after winning a series of loose play encounters, ably set up by the accurate kicking of fly half Jenkins from the line out on the 5 metre line, hooker Logan was driven over by the away side pack. Longley stepped up to convert the extra 2 points from right on the touchline after 10 minutes.

Hereford went back on the attack and entered the Malvern 22 on several occasions only to loose the ball and allow Longley to kick Malvern back down to the home side's 22. From one such kick Hereford were penalised from the line out, scrum half O’Brien took the penalty quickly and centre Richards cut through the Hereford back division to score. Longley again added the 2 points.

Hereford again gave a series of penalties away and just before half time, hooker Wayne Davies got himself a yellow card for a foolish use of the boot. Malvern used this to their obvious advantage and immediately attacked the Hereford line, where a scrum was awarded just short of the line. Hereford had to reshuffle their pack to accommodate the resting Davies and Malvern won the ball to put centre Richards in for his second try right in the corner. Once again Longley converted to put the score at 3-21 as the referee blew for half time.

From the kick off Malvern again used the accurate kicking of Jenkins to push the ball back deep into the Hereford 22. With an extra man Malvern were able to dictate the next 10 minutes and winger Hughes went over for Malvern’s third try. Once again Longley added the 2 points to take the score to 3-28.

Shortly afterwards, with Hereford back to a full complement, Osbourne again turned defence into attack and serious of inter passing moves involving the full back fly half Langford and Will Mcquaid, on for Will Watkins, and forced Malvern offside just outside their 22. Gary Preece moved the ball quickly to Captain Andy Johnson who charged over for Hereford’s first try. Osbourne kicked the conversion.

From the restart Hereford attacked again through Richard Mayson and Ben Collier, man of the match in his first outing for the Hereford First XV, who set up the ball and forced Malvern into another offside position. Gary Preece was again on hand to move the ball quickly and score Hereford second try to close the gap to 17-28 after Osborne’s successful kick.

Malvern sensed the threat of an improving Hereford second half and attacked the Hereford line for the next 10 minutes. They were awarded a penalty for offside and Longley completed a faultless afternoon by kicking the 3 points, to make the score 17-31.

From the kick off Hereford finally realised that the only way to break Malvern down was to keep the ball in hand and Osbourne once again set off from his own line. Inevitably Walker and Nugent were on hand to join in and were supported by Matthew Pritchard, who again had a fine game. Ben Hillstead and Mayson took the ball on right up to the Malvern 22, where Malvern were forced to infringe. This set Preece off on a short run from the ensuing penalty, feeding prop Andy Mason to go over with the help of his forwards. Osbourne just failed with the kick, making the final score 22-31.

The lessons to be learned for the young Hereford team are clear. In the second half when they kept the ball away form the Malvern pack and ran in three tries with pace from both forwards and backs means that they must adapt an open pattern of play, running at the opposition at every opportunity. However the most important factor remains yellow cards. Chairman Guy Griffiths commented after the game, ”I wrote to the players at the start of the season telling them that any player who is sent from the field of play will cost us points. In the ten minutes that Wayne was of the field Malvern scored 14 points. We lost by one try. The statistics prove my point.”

1 Ben Hillstead
2 Wayne Davies
3 Dave Thomas
4 Phil Jones
5 Andrew Johnson (captain)
6 Jamie Bullock
7 William Watkins
8 Mathew Pritchard
9 Gary Preece
10 Charlie Langford
11 Sam Walker
12 Andy Tannant
13 Pete Clarke
14 Nick Nugent
15 Colin Osborne

16 Nathaniel Bishop
17 Ben Adams
18 Jeremy Grisman