Ledbury 22 Hereford 8
Hereford travelled the short distance to Ledbury and were made to pay the price for too many unforced errors. They won plenty of good ball and enjoyed good field position especially in second half and Ledbury had no more chances than the Wyesiders, but were more clinical in their finishing. At half time the score was 15 – nil, Ledbury’s scores coming from two tries, a conversion and a penalty goal. In the second period, Hereford kicked a penalty and scored a nice try, whilst Ledbury added a further try which was improved to leave the final score at 22 points to 8.
“Losing to a neighbouring team in a local derby is never nice and on top of that it was not a good performance.” said disappointed Head Coach, Scott Sturdy “I would like to give a good shout out to Ledbury, who played really well and rose to the occasion. Unfortunately, the Hereford performance was littered with unforced errors, missed tackles and generally an inability to deal with the pressure.
We’ve now found ourselves in a very difficult place with four losses in a row to start the season, which we all know as coaches and players is not acceptable and is not where we want to be. We are looking now to use the break week to get four quality sessions in before we play Cheltenham at home, which is now a very big game for us in our present situation.
The 1870s lost at home to a very strong Dudley Kingswinford seconds in an extremely competitive game. The 1870s were in the lead with ten minutes to go before Dudley pulled away with a couple of late tries to win by 30 points to 18. With the break weekend coming up, our social team, the Lions have their second game of the season. They play Gwernyfedd at Wyeside, on Friday evening, kick off 7.30 pm.”
Each side had yet to win this season and the nerves showed. In the early stages, both sides created good chances which often ended with an error of judgement or handling. Mid-way through the first half, some Ledbury pressure forced a penalty 25 yards out in front of the Hereford posts, Iolo Budd converted to give Ledbury a 3-point lead. This seemed to settle the Ledbury side and from a penalty they moved the ball wide for Josh Bishop to score in the corner. Just before half time Ledbury scored a second try from Ben Lewis, Budd converted to give the home side a 15 points to nil interval lead.
The second half belonged to the Wyesiders, who spent long spells in the Ledbury half. One such period of pressure forced a penalty, which was slotted by Iwan Holder to reduce the deficit. Hereford put together some promising handling movements, but often momentum was halted when someone took one pace too many. With 20 minutes to go, Ledbury increased their lead, a penalty took play deep into the Hereford half, a lovely chip with a 9 iron, the ball moved from the corner into mid-field and Aaron Oldham crossed for the try. Budd converted.
With under 10 minutes left Hereford produced a great try. Iwan Holder made a break down the left and moved the ball smartly inside. A slick handling movement from edge to edge, through several pairs of hands ended with Tom Ewins crashing over for the try. Hereford’s revival was again not quite sufficient to overcome the deficit suffered in the first half, the final score remaining 22 – 8.
The scorers for the 1870s at home to Dudley Kingswinford 11 were: tries Lewis Goodridge, Drew Price and Juris Kudrjavcevs. Ben Wood kicked a penalty goal. Next week there are no league fixtures, but on Saturday October 12th we entertain Cheltenham at Wyeside and the 1870s visit Upton on Severn for a local derby, the kick off time for each game is 3 pm.
