Hereford 39 Worcester 17

Hereford played some of the best rugby seen at Wyeside this season, when they entertained local rivals Worcester in their last league game of the season. The first half was fairly even, each side registering two tries and converting one. The Wyesiders had started slowly and Worcester took the lead with an early try, but Hereford settled and with five minutes of the first half remaining had drawn level at 12 points all.

Just before half time a Hereford penalty gave them a narrow 3-point lead to take into the second half.

In the first thirty minutes of the second period, Hereford played some delightful running rugby and four more tries came at regular intervals, two of which were converted. Worcester put together some aggressive football in the final ten minutes and added a third try to take the final tally to 39 points to 17.
A happy Head Coach, Scott Sturdy said “A great afternoon at Wyeside, for the HRFC team’s last league game of the season against a very game Worcester side. We had a really challenging first twenty minutes when we were probably a little bit soft in defence. We didn’t get organised, or get off the line consistently and Worcester used our ill discipline to capitalise on a couple of opportunities and put pressure on the scoreboard.
I was really pleased to see the lads respond, to score a couple of great tries and take a penalty to get in with a 15 – 12 half time lead. At half time, we identified a few areas where we might get success. We then went out and executed really well in the second half, scoring some real quality edge-to-edge tries and a couple of great finishes from some of the back line. A really comprehensive win in the end with six tries and a 39 – 17 score-line.”
“It’s great to finish off the season with that kind of performance in front of a packed crowd. I’m really pleased to finish the league season that way, ending up fifth, level on points with Stratford in fourth. We should have dearly loved to have challenged to push a bit higher up the table and that will be one of our aspirations for next year. Overall, the league campaign across the senior teams in the club has been very successful this year. We now look forward to getting the draw for the first round of the Papa Johns Cup which will be played on the first of April.”

Hereford got off to a slow start, their kick-chase was not working, they got very little first phase ball in the opening quarter and some of their defence was slack.

Worcester took a lead of 5 points within five minutes of kick off, they kicked to the corner and the catch and drive crossed the line for a try. It took twenty minutes for the Wyesiders to register a reply, but what a reply it was. Worcester knocked on a Josh Wright kick to the corner, from the scrum, the ball passed slickly through the hands of Wright on to Ollie Bulleid, Iwan Surian-Holder, Levi Hughes and finally to Matt Milsom who dotted down for the try.  Bulleid nailed the conversion. The lead changed hands again when Worcester responded with another catch and drive try which was improved. Hereford levelled the scores when they won a lineout and moved the ball classically across the line to Joe Vaughan who dived over in the corner.

With just a few minutes left in the half, Ollie Bulleid slotted a penalty to take the score to 15 points to 12 at half time.

Early in the second half, an Ollie Bulleid miss pass to Levi Hughes was laid off to Iwan Surian-Holder who beat his tackler to race round under the posts, Bulleid added the extra points. Inside ten minutes Holder struck again on the end of a smart passing movement, this time Bullied hit the crossbar with the conversion attempt from a narrow angle. Hereford had secured their try bonus, but continued to add to their tally. Freddie Spencer found an excellent touch from a penalty, the well organised catch and drive took play to the Worcester try
line and Luke Yarranton broke away from the maul to touch down.
The Wyesiders’ final try of the afternoon was another well-worked passing movement through several pairs of hands and finished off by Joe Vaughan for his second try of the game, Bulleid added the conversion. Worcester, to their credit had not given up and for the final ten minutes moved up a gear and their big pack put the home defence under constant pressure which gave them a well-deserved consolation try. This was a great team effort, all eighteen players contributed to an entertaining match and a fine end to the league season. Now we look forward to a new experience with the Papa Johns Cup.