Worcester 17 Hereford 33

Saturday at Worcester, Hereford registered their first away win of the season and achieved their first double in the process.

The Wyesiders got out of the blocks quickly with an early try and registered two more to take an interval lead of 21 points to 5. They took twenty minutes to get going in the second half, in which time Worcester had added two more tries and had closed the gap to 4 points.

Hereford though turned up the gas and closed off the game with two further tries.

After ten minutes of end-to-end play, a Connor Sullivan break paved the way for a determined run by
Dan Stacey, which was halted just short of the Worcester line. Perry Pudge was in support and
opened the scoring with a try under the posts, Callum Brayshaw added the extra points. Sean Day
and Tom Ewins were showing good form and combined to create Hereford’s second try. Day caught
a speculative kick in mid field, outflanked the defence and a well-timed off-load enabled Ewins to
beat his tackler and run in for the try, again improved by Callum Brayshaw.

With forwards Ben Greenhouse and Ollie Hutcheson prominent the Wyesiders remained in control and a slick passing movement ended with Dan Stacey forced into touch. The third Hereford score came when Callum Brayshaw exploited a Worcester mistake, he hacked a loose ball down field and followed up to touch down for a try which he converted himself. Before the interval some sustained Worcester pressure on the Hereford line pulled in defenders and an accurate cross kick was touched down in the corner.

The conversion attempt failed, leaving the visitors to lead at half time by 21 points to 5.

Worcester started the second half with renewed energy and within five minutes reduced the deficit
with an unconverted push over try, following a catch and drive from a lineout. A few minutes later,
Worcester were able to put pressure on the Hereford line and eventually, despite some good defence,
forced their way over for a try under the posts which was converted, taking the score to 17 points to
21. Hereford with fresh legs from the bench regained the initiative and as the game moved into the
final quarter, the Wyesiders set up a forward drive through the middle which ended in a try for James
Marshall, converted by Callum Brayshaw.
Despite a yellow card for Ewan Duncan, Hereford continued to press for more scores and in the final minute were rewarded with an unconverted try. Dan Stacey, who had put in a lively performance on the wing, picked up a ball in the 22 and after beating his tackler, raced the length of the field to touch down in the corner, taking the final score to 17 points to 33.
Head coach, Scott Sturdy said after the game “Firstly it was a great result on Saturday, it’s been
difficult for us away from home this season, we’ve not had any results and have struggled from a
performance perspective. It’s positive that we’ve addressed some of the issues we faced away from home early on and managed to put them into practice at the weekend. We were extremely good for the first thirty minutes, our attack was really dangerous, breaking the line and keeping the ball alive with some good off-loads and scoring some very good tries.

Worcester were allowed back into the game with a score before the interval and didn’t really come out after half-time. We couldn’t retain possession and allowed Worcester to exert pressure to get back to 21–17.

A pleasing psychological aspect was that we worked out what we needed to do to change the energy of the game. We got ourselves back on the ball and scored a couple more tries towards the end of the game, which made the game look more comfortable than it was.
Overall, it was great to get that monkey off our back and to get our first away win. We now have a very difficult month coming up, with second placed Kenilworth away and top team Lichfield at home, followed by Ludlow away. We definitely need to build from this result if we’re to take anything from the rest of this month.
The Mud-dogs also had a great win over Camp Hill 22–10 and they will be playing Stafford at home this weekend. Two great results to start the year and we aim to build on that in the coming weeks.”