Ledbury 36 Kidderminster Carolians 31
From the kick off Ledbury put Kidderminster under pressure at both the scrum and the lineout forcing KC’s to concede numerous penalties, from one of these penalties the home side reacted quickly and created a try which was converted to lead 7 – 0. The problems in the set scum did not abate and Ledbury were awarded a penalty try, increasing their lead to 14 - 0 the scrum infringement also led to a yellow card for Nathan Ward. The Ledbury lead was soon increased when they were awarded a penalty for KC’s handling the ball in a ruck this was kicked to make the score 17– 0, Kidderminster were having difficulty in getting a consistent supply of ball or indeed getting into the Ledbury half and when they did too many penalties were conceded. Ledbury were playing fast open rugby and with Kidderminster down to 14 men, defending was difficult. As half time approached KC’s were back to 15 players for a short time before Ryan Tiene was adjudged to have deliberately knocked the ball on and he was yellow carded, in the last movement of the first half Ledbury created an overlap and scored a try which was converted to lead by 24 – 0.
Within 3 minutes of the restart KC’s conceded another try which was converted increasing the Ledbury lead to 31 – 0, and a succession of weak tackles yielded a further try and with 30 minutes of the match remaining Ledbury were 36 points to nil in the lead, and the KC’s supporters were fearing the worst!! Kidderminster finally put a couple of phases together, an excellent run by George Lloyd Jones supported by Nathan Ward produced a try for George Tildesley, from the kick off Kidderminster ran the ball out of defence, another good weaving run by Lloyd Jones well supported by his teammates produced a try for Jim Tildesley which was converted by Tom Dalton making the score 36 – 12. With 10 minutes of the game remaining KC’s were running the ball from everywhere and getting better ball from the set scrum, from one such scrum the ball reached George Tildesley who broke through numerous tackles to score, Tom Dalton added the conversion. 36 – 19. Within minutes a loose ball was passed to wide to Ryan Tiene after a strong run he kicked the ball behind the defence and followed up to score a try. 36 – 24. With 3 minutes of the game remaining Ledbury were hammering away at the Kidderminster line and looking like they were about to score, however their final pass was intercepted by Ryan Tiene who raced the full length of the field to score under the posts, Tom Dalton added the conversion. The final whistle went with the score at 36 -31.
The team should be pleased with the way they fought back in the second half against a very good Ledbury side.
Kevin Woodham