Match Report

Hereford & Worcester  2^nd Team Merit Table

By Michael Clarke

Saturday 19^th October 2002

Worcester Wanderers II    36      Ledbury II    5

The Merit Table game on Saturday 19^th October 2002 against Ledbury seconds showed the strength of the Worcester Wanderers’ pool of players, with the first team playing Redditch in the Powergen Cup, the seconds crafted a superb win against Ledbury seconds.  Ledbury, whose first team is two divisions above the Wanderers in Midlands 3 West (South) started as favourites, but failed to live up to those expectations.

The Wanderers were not daunted by the expected advantage that Ledbury would have and attacked from the kick off.  In the third minute of the game they were awarded a penalty and following fine mauling by the forwards, fly half Roger James passed to inside centre, Ben Clarke who sprinted from the 10-metre line to score under the posts.  James converted the try and the score was 7-0.

The game continued at pace with both teams playing entertaining rugby and Ledbury threatening the Wanderers line. After 20 minutes of play No. 8 John Sitch stole the ball in a Ledbury line out, 8 metres from their own line, James dashed across to score and by converting his own try, took the score to 14-0.

Ledbury were undaunted and immediately put the Wanderers under sustained pressure. They produced some excellent three quarter play, which was completed by quick ball to the Ledbury winger Merritt who outran the Wanderers defence over 30 metres and went over for a fine try in the corner.

With the score at 14-5 Ledbury continued to attack and a few minutes later full back Paddy Clear’s ferocious tackle stopped Merritt from adding his second try after he had evaded two tackles from the Wanderers defence.  After a further period of sustained pressure by the Wanderers they came close to scoring again when winger Andy Cownie made a strong 40 metres run only to be tackled a metre from the line.

The Wanderers then had a period of fine play which saw a poor drop out by Ledbury which was dribbled over the 22 and was scooped up by scrum half Jim Goodman, who passed to Clarke cutting a good angle and slicing through the Ledbury defence to increase the score to 19-5.

Shortly after the restart Clear charged down a Ledbury kick and winger Sean Bearstead seeing that the Ledbury defence was flat, kicked the ball ahead, then hacked the ball on again and chased it to the line to score.  James converted the try and the score was 24-5 at half time.

The second half started frenetically but Ledbury could not breach the Wanderers defence and an early penalty for hands in the ruck allowed James to increase the lead to 29-5.  The play did not slacken throughout the fourth quarter and despite Ledbury’s best efforts they could not score.  The Wanderers had the last word of the match and in the final minute of the game, the spectators were treated to a flowing piece of rugby with replacement wingers, Wes Hawkins and Ed McDonald linking on the right, their deft handling and quick hand allowing replacement centre Nigel Ford to score in the corner.  The game concluded with an excellent Worcester win of 36 points to 5.

The Wanderers win takes them from the bottom of the merit table with a 50% result record and with most of the other teams having played 4 games, their first game loss against Bromsgrove III might be redeemed over the next few games.

The Seconds played quality rugby and against a team from a higher division, which bodes well for the club should they achieve further promotion this season.