Wednesbury bounce back with convincing display
Rugby Union
WEDNESBURY 29 UTTOXETER 0
THIS week Wednesbury had a very important game – not only a league game but also the Staffs Senior Vase cup game, rolled into one game.
After the previous week’s poor performance the team was looking for a big improvement, and they certainly got that.
Wednesbury started the game all guns blazing and kept it up all the game, and but for a stubborn Uttoxeter defence the score could have been much higher.
They opened their scoring after five minutes, a rolling maul saw Wednesbury push the visitors back towards their try line, Ryan Roberts got hold of the ball and dived over the line for the try, Sean Bottomer adding the conversion. The home side kept up a continual push for more points, but they had to wait fifteen minutes, until they were awarded a penalty which Bottomer successfully kicked.
Strength
Then it was the turn of Matt Dale – in the space of five minutes he scored two tries, both from moves by Wednesbury’s forwards, who using their strength pushed their opponents ever backwards for Matt to finish off both times. Sean Bottomer added one conversion to make it 22-0 at half time.
In the last few games Wednesbury have suffered in the second half of their games, but this week it was different, they kept up the pressure on their opponents for the remainder of the game. With the second half only five minutes old Wednesbury were awarded a penalty close to Uttoxeter’s line, and with quick thinking Steve Worthy took a quick tap and dived over the line for the try, Bottomer adding the conversion.
Uttoxeter battled to keep Wednesbury at bay, but with this amount of pressure they gave away a lot of penalties, the referee having to yellow card three of their players.
Next week Wednesbury have another home game against local rivals Handsworth kicking off at 2.15pm.
After the game Wednesbury coach Gary Summers said: “I generally think that it was a result that we expect, with the team we should be putting out every week, if the same 18-20 players were available. But the nature of the beast is they are all working family men and rugby has taken a back seat.hopefully we can get a decent squad out again before the Christmas break and maybe refresh and finish the season off on a high
“It’s the end of my final season so we will be looking to find a suitable replacement coach and will be actively recruiting after the break.
“Another good performance from John Mcgregor, Aaron Harris, Jordan Allwood and Ryan Roberts. Joe Mitchell showed some improvement, but my man of the match: Lee Allwood.”