Woodrush 41 Upton-on-Severn 14
Midlands Three West (South)
WOODRUSH climbed out of the bottom two with a crucial victory on President’s Day at Icknield Street, where defeat would have meant almost certain relegation for the home team.
Upton began Saturday’s match a place and three points above Woodrush with a game in hand, but the hosts’ bonus point victory saw them move two points above Upton and give themselves a fighting chance of beating the drop.
Woodrush’s season has been an odd mixture of near misses, poor performances, brave efforts and questionable decision-making against a backdrop of 20-plus players at every training session at Forhill.
The hosts went into the match with only three league wins to their credit all season and that is quite clearly relegation form. The league table does not lie after so many games.
As is the norm at Woodrush for President’s Day, Woodrush selected from a strong availability and there is no doubt the side that took the field were more than up to the task.
The hosts started strongly and put Upton under considerable pressure early on, but a break upfield resulted in a scrum for the visitors ten metres out.
Inexplicably weak home defence saw Upton cross the Rush line straight from the base of the scrum and with ten minutes gone the home side were seven points down. It was a soft try to concede but somewhat typical of their season to date.
Woodrush responded strongly though, dominating possession, and when Callum Ward crossed to level the score five minutes later the large home support had a right to be optimistic.
Woodrush inexplicably spurned the chance of two fairly easy penalty opportunities until common sense prevailed and Jake White slotted over the third to nudge them in front by three.
However, after some relatively even exchanges, some sloppy defence by Woodrush allowed the big Upton centre to walk through untouched from first phase ball and the teams turned around with the visitors 14-10 to the good.
Strong words from the coaches at half time seemed to have had the desired effect and the Woodrush pack began to dominate at the set piece. A pushover scrum try, dabbed down by eight Josh Tomlinson, was converted by White who was having a good day with the boot.
Ward went over for his brace and lively scrum half Tom Waters also crossed the whitewash as Woodrush launched wave after wave of attacks on the Upton line.
Tomlinson crossed for his brace before White capped an excellent performance at 10 with a try of his own.
Both of Woodrush’s remaining league games are away, with a trip to Old Coventrians on Saturday followed by a visit to Bedworth on April 22.
Nothing will be decided until the very death of the season, but Woodrush have at least demonstrated they remain worthy of this league.
