Ludlow 24 Hereford 0
Hereford started the game well and during a fifteen-minute spell kept Ludlow pinned into their own
half. Both Jack Goodwin and Tom Ewins came close to giving Hereford a lead, but some aggressive
Ludlow defence kept their line intact. Hereford were not protecting their possession well and a
Ludlow turnover, one of many, took the game into the Hereford half and for the remainder of the
first period, it was the Wyesiders who had to concentrate on defence. After thirty minutes a Hereford
defensive error was picked up by Ludlow to run in a try under the posts, the conversion attempt was
good.
A glimmer of optimism saw Joe Vaughan run back a speculative kick, Levi Hughes had
switched to the left from his right wing and made good ground into the Ludlow half, but had the ball
stripped in the tackle. A slick Ludlow passing movement saw the ball moved quickly to the wing
who outflanked the defence for a try in the corner. As the interval approached a couple of Ludlow
players made a clean break and interchanging passes took play into the Hereford 22, but some
desperate cover defence stopped them just short of the goal-line.
The half time score remained at 12 points to nil.
Early in the second half Hereford conceded another turnover, which set up a passing movement
resulting in an unconverted try. A long relieving kick into the Hereford 22 allowed Ludlow to put
some severe pressure on the Hereford defence. Eventually the ball was moved across the line and the
winger found a gap in the corner to register the bonus try. Despite the high wind an excellent kick
added 2 further points to the Ludlow tally. Hereford responded and some driving play from Gareth
Jones, Jack Goodwin and Ollie Hutcheson gave Hereford some vain hope of a consolation score.
They finished the game without influential flank forward Ewan Duncan who had to leave the field
with a head injury. Ludlow closed the game off, finishing with a 24 points to nil victory. Hereford
shot themselves in the foot by conceding too many unforced penalties and turnovers, Ludlow won
the clashes, were more physical and deserved their success.
Disappointed coach, Alun Richards said ”We tried to get a foothold to play a phased game with
physicality, but there were all too few occasions when we managed to do that. Ludlow are a
powerful team, strong with a good pack of forwards who managed to compete at the breakdown and
were very good at spoiling our ball. They deserved the win because they had more physicality, they
wanted the ball more and made life really difficult for us. Tom Ewins and Perry Pudge were
outstanding for us, they carried hard and defended well all day and were our main go forward
players. In the pack our scrum went really well, it was disappointing that we didn’t make better use
of the advantage. On a cold and blustery day we opted too often to kick to touch instead of opting for
a scrum. I was disappointed with our game overall, now we need to reset, have a rest next week and
get a couple of training sessions under our belt before our next game against Malvern at home. This
will be a really important game for us to get back to winning ways.”