As correctly predicted in WildWillie’s preview, the Billesley breeze was blowing in full flow, mostly a cross wind, but slightly in the favour of the home team in the first half. And yes it was freezing. It was good to see the new stand (with considerable facilities thereunder) at the ground, opened at the start of the season by locally-born Martin Johnson. The excellent pork baps can now be bought from inside the clubhouse instead of enduring the Birmingham Mistral outside. The news from home was that Buzz had not made the trip as his wife had gone into labour; the number eight slot being handed to the capable hands of Jarad Williams, with Chris Pilgrim promoted to captain. 

The match started with Carnegie pressing, and it was apparent that the players had more time and space than last week against Bristol. After a few false dawns, Moseley were penalised in their own half for a high tackle, we kicked to the corner and Andy Saull scored from the resulting maul. Mr Sinfield, showing no signs of tiredness from his previous night on A Question of Sport, nailed a tricky conversion (only joking – I know it was pre-recorded).Shortly after Dave Doc “scored” in the same corner but it was ruled out for a forward pass. 

Moseley, having weathered the storm, had started to get their act together, with Glyn Hughes clearly playing an inspirational role. Following Glyn’s kick to the left-hand touchline, Carnegie were penalised at the lineout, and Moseley scored a try in the corner from a quick tap, this was the first time they had been in our 22 area. Mr Hughes missed the conversion in the swirling wind. Score 5 – 7. 

The match now entered a crucial stage with Moseley playing with renewed vigour and confidence and Carnegie matching them. Finally the deadlock was broken with Sir Kev putting a quick, flat pass across to Forsythe, who took the pass at speed and at an angle that the Moseley defence could not cope with and crossed the tryline just right of the posts. Simple conversion by Kev, score now 5 – 14. No more scores before halftime but a few of the Moseley players were going down with injuries. 

The second half started with another period of Moseley intensity and possession. Carnegie held out and Moseley replacements were starting to come on to the pitch replacing injured starting players. Carnegie exchanged props after about 17 minutes of the half, which was undoubtedly a planned tactical substitution. The fresh Beech and McDonnell helped win a scrum penalty which was the start of a chain of events that lead to the third and decisive try. A kick to touch, line out and then a Moseley player was yellow-carded for bringing down the resulting maul. Carnegie then applied pressure resulting in another penalty on the right, followed the usual process but the result this time was a try from the maul by Andy Saull. Sir Kev was again successful with a difficult conversion. Score 5 – 21 and despite Moseley’s spirited play, they looked tired and had already emptied the bench, so it seemed the match was won. I thought Glyn Hughes had been replaced but, prompted by a Moseley supporter, I spotted him lined up at centre (GH a centre?) due to a shuffling of the available resources. 

The match was indeed won. Sinfield and Forsythe recreated their first-half converted try, this time under the posts, we emptied our bench and Moseley scored a converted consolation try with the last play of the game. 

Final score 28 – 12 and the final Carnegie try was of course worth a bonus point.  So from our point of view the mission targets had been achieved. There was also some sort of strange symmetry in two players scoring almost identical tries in each half. The impeccable place kicking of Sir Kev was a big help as 14 – 5 at half time looks so much better than 10 – 5. 

But what about the performance?  Having watched us play top and then bottom of the table in 6 days it is still difficult to say. To some extent the Bristol quality was replaced by a vigour and spirit in a Moseley team fighting, backs against the wall, for survival. Whilst the Carnegie performance was not particularly convincing, this is the third match against Moseley that I have written-up and the feeling always seems to be the same. On balance, I think you can only play as well as the opposing team lets you play, and I give credit to Moseley. 

I hope Moseley stay up. If we go back to the question about resources that was raised in the first paragraph, I think you will find that the answer is YES.