DROITWICH  10 - 55  HEREFORD

The Glyn Mitchell Memorial Ground, Saturday 26 February 2005

Powergen Midlands 3 West (South)

Hereford kept a fine run of form going, which has seen only one defeat in the last nine games, by comprehensively beating bottom side Droitwich. 

Droitwich kicked off and immediately put Hereford under pressure but some sterling defensive work from Steve Bailey turned the ball over twice and Hereford were able to clear their lines. On another occasion skipper Wilf Reece decided that the ball needed to be out of his own 22 and subsequently launched a towering kick from his to the oppositions 22. However Droitwich were dominant in the line outs and continued to win more of their own share of ball from any kicks to touch. From a line out on the Hereford 22 after 15 minutes they tried a driving maul and opened the scoring with their Flanker touching down.

That score woke Hereford up and a driving run from Ben Priday took the ball into the opposition's 22. Droitwich were awarded a scrum on their 5 metre line which the Hereford front row disrupted allowing Billy and Jeremy Grisman to chase down the attempted kick to touch older brother Jeremy won the race to the ball and got their first try. He also converted it to put Hereford 5-7 up after 20 minutes.

From the kick off Hereford won quick ball through Matthew Pritchard and Giles Scott made an impressive break, linking up with Jackie White and Des White to allow Des to break through for the second try. The same three players were involved 3 minutes later with Des White again slicing through the defence to get his second try, with Grisman converting to take the score to 5-19.

Hereford then attacked at will but needed better passing in the backs for more points. Droitwich held firm and coupled with good defensive work along with the Hereford mistakes fought there way back into the Hereford 22. Some good defensive work from Jacky and Des White managed to keep the home side out. In a carbon copy of there first try Droitwich again won good line out ball, rolled on the maul and went over for the second unconverted try to make the score 10- 19. From the kick off and subsequent line out Hooker Dave Thomas had an impressive run and set up Reece to go over for the final score of the half to make the score 10-24. 

The first half was mistake ridden and Coach Stubbs had a lot to say in the interval. It seemed to work and Pritchard was ever prominent in turning over the ball in the second half. He put Billy Grisman away who was caught just short of the line when a simple pass to the supporting up Jackie White would have been sure of a score. However from the scrum Hereford again put pressure on the Droitwich defence, with some great work from Bailey, Thomas and Priday to turn the ball round for Ali McCall to go over to take the score to 10-29.

Droitwich kicked off but Grisman kicked the ball back into the home side's 22. From the line out Luke Clifford picked up the loose ball, made 20 yards and then was able to pass on the Pritchard who forced his way over. Grisman kicked the conversion to take it to 10-36. 

Changes were made with Ed Edwards, Louis Fairbrother and Ben Jenkins replacing Andy Johnson, Dave Thomas and Giles Scott.

Des White collected the ball from the kick off and some good links and a run from Pritchard gave Hereford a line out down by the Droitwich 22. Pritchard was again on hand to gather the ball after Ed Edwards had turned over the man, he passed to Priday who jinked his way around the Droitwich defence with a 20 yard run to score a well deserved try. With the score at 10-41 there followed a bizarre period of play when Hereford, on at least 6 occasions, passed the ball forward when they had a 2 on 1 attack inside of the Droitwich 22. Hereford supporters became frustrated, not to mention the forwards, with these continual errors, when it seemed easier to score than not to.

Hereford continued to put pressure on and Jeremy Grisman cut through the defence to score his second which again he converted. Then final play of the game saw the Hereford backs cut loose, this time not passing the ball forward for Richard Mayson to score the final try, which Grisman converted to make the score 10-55.

Although the score suggests a romp, Hereford littered the game with errors and really should have scored at least another 6 or 7 tries. Coach Mike Stubbs will take the win but the performance was summed up simply by one of the players, “This was not a training game – it’s a real game”.  The players would do well to remember that.