Worcester Wanderers  -  10        Solihull II - 35

Despite high hopes of beating their main rivals, Solihull, the Wanderers were unable to match their expectations with their performance. There was good early play from them and the first 15 minutes of the game was played in Solihull's half.  An early scoring opportunity by scrum half Lee Watson was missed, when he could have put Winger Tom Muir through in a two on one situation, but was tackled by the fullback.  From that move Solihull applied pressure and in only one of the few visits to the Wanderers' half in the first quarter of the game and were rewarded with a penalty for offside to put them into the lead 0-3.  Joph Young had an opportunity to level the score but his 18th minute  penalty attempt went just wide of the posts.

Solihull then stepped up their game in the second quarter and exploited weak Wanderers' defence down the blind side to score and unconverted try in the corner. With the score at 0 - 8 the Wanderers upped their game and they were awarded with a penalty with five minutes of the first half to go.  Joph Young made no mistake with a good kick that took the score to 3-8.  The Wanderers seemed to be coming back into the game and with only one score between the teams and half time approached appeared to lose concentration at their own line out on their five metre line and a scrum was awarded to Solihull.  It was an easy try when the Solihull fullback took the ball over just before half time to increase their lead to 3-13

The second half had a lively restart with the Wanderers picking up the pace and taking advantage of their backs speed.  Unfortunately too many spilt balls allowed Solihull to regain possession and put pressure on the Wanderers' line.  After ten minutes of hard fast rugby Solihull scored a third try increasing their lead to 3-18.

The heavier and more experienced Solihull pack had been overwhelming the Wanderers at the scrums, with them either winning Wanderers' balls against the head or stealing it in the line outs, mauls and rucks.   A combination of weak tackling and the inability to control their own set pieces squandered ball to Solihull who exerted more pressure to run in three tries in quick succession, so that with five minutes to go they led by 3 - 35.

Although the Wanderers could not make up the deficit it is to their credit that they played hard and fast rugby to the end of the match and got some consolation with a late try by Replacement Jon Rew, with Young's conversion ending the game at 10 - 35.

This was a crucial match as Solihull have beaten the Wanderers to first place in both NM3 and NM2 for the past two years.  In the five encounters between the two teams, Solihull have beaten the Wanderers four times with the Wanderers' only victory over them early in season 2001-2002.  However Solihull have lost their first game to Veseyans on 14th September and Veseyans were held to a draw by Upton yesterday, so the Wanderers are still in contention.  They need to bolster their pack in both weight and technique if they hope to beat Solihull at Sharmans Cross in the replay, but have a good pool of players, which is increasing weekly with old players and new joining the club; therefore their options may improve as the season progresses.