Ludlow 17 Hereford 10
Hereford made the short journey up the A49 on a dry, but cold afternoon to play a full part in this typical local derby. The game was notable for the energy, enthusiasm and determination shown by both sides rather than classic rugby. The first half was well balanced with both sides playing a handling game and ended with Ludlow taking a 10 points to 5 advantage into the interval.
Following an early second half try for the visitors which levelled the scores, vocal home supporters in the large crowd urged their team on to greater efforts. For much of the half Ludlow forced good field position, but were unable to breach the Wyesiders’ defence until, with just minutes left, struck for the winning try. Hereford, showing great heart, put everything into the last few minutes, but despite creating a couple of chances were unable to finish them and the score ended at 17 – 10.
Head Coach, Scott Sturdy said. “Disappointing to lose a local derby. Ludlow played extremely well, their ability to keep the ball and frustrate us and the defensive strategy they employed made it difficult to get our game going at times. Overall, we must be disappointed with the performance to lose 17 – 10 in a local derby, we struggled to get our attacking game going, far too many unforced errors in the first half and not our best day in terms of discipline either, lots of penalties against us.
This made it difficult to get any field position, any flow or any handle on the game. I commend all the lads for the defensive effort. We had maximum of thirty percent of the ball, had to defend for long periods of time and restricted Lulow to two tries. We need to be better than that, we have the league leaders Stow on the Wold coming to Wyeside next week. It will be another big challenge for us, the game was closely contested when we went to Stow earlier in the season and I urge as many people as possible to come down to support the lads. Fingers crossed, the lads of the 1870s will be back in action again away to Stoke Old Boys. Pinley advised us they couldn’t raise a side, too late to get another opponent for a friendly this weekend.”
Hereford kicked off and put together several good handling moves, many of which ended with a kick ahead giving Ludlow possession to run or kick back. The teams were sizing each other up and Ludlow tended to resort to kick and chase. The Wyesiders were penalised at the break-down, allowing the hosts to take an early 3-point lead with a well struck penalty. Hereford’s response was to continue to attack and gained ground from a couple of penalties.
Their first try of the afternoon was created off the back of a scrum. The ball was moved through hands, Josh Wright half broke a tackle and off-loaded to Bryn Goodall, who laid-off to Dean Powell. Powell in turn sent a miss pass over the defence which bounced off the ground into Levi Hughes’ hands. Hughes still had some work to do, he crashed over the winger and full back to touch down in the left-hand corner, the conversion attempt was wide. For the next twenty minutes the game settled down into end-to-end stuff with neither side creating real chances, until, just before half time, Ludlow broke the deadlock with a try in the corner, which was converted to give them a 10- 5 lead at half time.
Shortly after half time a really good concerted spell of pressure from Hereford, with a build-up of six phases, then some catch-pass Ollie Hutcheson finished the second Hereford try, the conversion attempt was wide. Ludlow had best field position and most possession for the next thirty minutes penning the Wyesiders in their own half for much of the time.
The well organised Hereford defence gave their supporters hope that they might hold out for a draw or even snatch a winner from one of their infrequent visits into Ludlow territory. However, it was Ludlow who snatched the winner, after taking two shots to clear the bunker, the Hereford defence was for once, drawn out of position just enough for a Ludlow player to cross in the corner for the winning try which was improved with an excellent kick. The Wyesiders showed great heart to put in some determined attacking effort in the few minutes remaining, but sadly were not able to add to the scoreboard leaving Ludlow to run out winners by 17 points to 10.
