In form Kidderminster Carolians made it five wins in a row in league and cup with this convincing display in the semi final of the North Mids Shield,which they last won in 2006,and on 10th May they will face either Bridgnorth or Malvern in the final at a venue yet to be confirmed,
The visitors fielded a huge pack but Kidder were not intimidated and at the first scrum they gained a moral victory when they shoved Moseley backwards and flanker Mike Protheroe claimed the ball on the floor to lay down an early marker.It was clear that KC’s game plan was to run the Moseley forwards around at every opportunity and they dominated the first quarter of an hour.The visitors did not help themselves by badly overthrowing their first two lineouts and from the second,on their own five metre line,Kidder had men over on the left but their passing was not quite clinical enough and another promising attacking position went to waste with a knock on in the centres.The home side were,however,playing at a great tempo and in the thirteenth minute they opened the scoring when fullback Jordan Hatch,recovered from his broken nose,came into the line and his superb offload out of the back of the hand enabled left wing Laurence Hughes to cut inside and run round under the posts for a lovely try,duly improved by scrumhalf Chris Pinner.
Ten minutes later the visitors first concerted attack of the match saw their forwards pound away at KC’s line without success but when they eventually moved the ball left their winger Jack McLaren found space to touch down at the corner to reduce the arrears to 7-5.Shortly afterwards Moseley powered forward again from a quickly taken penalty but knocked on just five metres out and from the scrum Kidder were able to clear the danger.Having withstood Moseley’s spell of pressure without conceding further,the hosts went back on the attack and following another overthrown Oak lineout on their own 22 Pinner almost went over but was just held up.
Moseley’s lineout was now disintegrating into something of a shambles and when McLaren was yellow carded two minutes before halftime KC’s unsurprisingly opted to kick the penalty to touch.From the resulting possession centre George Morgan was brought down inches short but skipper Rob Delahay was on hand to score the second try and Pinner’s conversion gave Kidder a well deserved 14-5 interval lead.
Three minutes into the second period Moseley were penalised at a ruck on halfway and livewire Pinner tapped to himself before quickly passing to Rhys Pritchard and with Oak caught unawares the centre sprinted away and despite almost being tackled he managed to stretch over at the right corner.
The game then became very open,attack and counter attack,and from rare clean Moseley lineout possession on halfway they briefly threatened until they kicked the ball dead to give KC’s a 22 drop out.They were soon made to pay for their profligacy when a well worked short throw to Delahay on halfway set up a ruck and a beautifully timed short pass by Pritchard to Morgan sent the No 13 under the posts for a try converted by Pinner to establish a healthy 26-5 lead with twenty five minutes left to play.
A needlessly conceded line out by Moseley when a Kidder kick from outside their 22 which was going straight out was fumbled into touch and then a deliberate knock on kept them under the hammer.They did break quickly from a tap penalty in their own 22 but KC’s got back well to snuff out the attack and when the visitors ran another penalty from fifteen metres out they went through several phases but could not make any headway against the home side’s well organised defence.They were almost caught on the counter when winger Josh Winfield broke from deep and kicked ahead but was denied by a cruel bounce of the ball and had a real stroke of good fortune when Kidder were going for a pushover try from a five metre scrum and with Oak being marched back at a rate of knots looked certain to score before picking up to early and knocking on.
KC’s finally put the game to bed with two tries in the last three minutes.Firstly,good pressing on Moseley’s line forced them into a desperate kick out of defence which only found Hatch just outside their 22 and he ran through their bedraggled defence to dab down under the posts.Then a Winfield chip was well gathered by replacement lock Jack Tunstall and he linked with fellow second row Chris Baldwin whose pass put in Pritchard,again under the posts,for his second try.Both scores were easily converted by Pinner to make it five out of six for the scrumhalf.
This was another impressive team performance by KC’s but they will have to do it all again next week,this time at Billesley Common,when the two sides meet in a Mids 2 West (N) clash and they will have to make sure they do not let their standards drop.