Birmingham Solihull 14 Alcester 17
Alcester claimed a hard fought and narrow victory over a well organised home side in a game that was ended early because of an injury to a home player.
On a dry and dusty pitch and in the bright but blowy conditions, Alcester took the lead, somewhat against the run of play, after full back Freddie White crossed for the opening score.
Both sides had agreed to make the game one of four quarters to allow squad rotation, although with only three replacements, as opposed to the home side’s bigger squad, that didn’t really help Alcester.
Birmingham Solihull’s younger and weightier pack dominated the scrum in the opening quarter but the introduction of new signing prop Elliott Powell at the first break, shored it up for Alcester so they were more competitive at the set phase in the second quarter.
The home side took the lead when they exploited weak defence at the side of an unguarded ruck, deep inside Alcester territory, to score their first try which was converted.
The visitors hit back and second row, Ethan Moll was held up over the line as his side looked to reclaim the lead.
Alcester’s line out was solid throughout the game, to give a good possession platform, but the young home defence, didn’t shirk any challenge, as the visitors struggled to set their power runners free.
The home side led 7-5 at the break, but from the restart it was Alcester in the ascendancy and back row, Christian Rushton was hauled down just inches from the line just as it looked like the red and blacks were in for their second score.
Now it was Birmingham Solihull’s turn to score, somewhat against the run of play, when their pack blasted over from a maul following a catch and drive line out, which too easily splintered Alcester’s maul defence. That try was also converted to give the home side a 14-5 lead.
Almost immediately Alcester hit straight back, when Dwayne Cruickshank crossed for his side’s second try, which skipper Ed Gough converted, to narrow the deficit to 14-12.
Before the end of the third quarter, the hands of the visiting back line were at their best to send wing Alex Chiles free into the corner for his side’s third try, and they should have extended their lead, but completely butchered an overlap opportunity when Chiles was free on the right wing with the line at his mercy.
Going into the final quarter, the younger and fresher legs of the home side looked like they would get their side back into the game but after a fairly even opening ten minutes of the final quarter, the game was ended early, due to a nasty looking neck injury to a home player. Thankfully, after hospital tests and treatment he was sent home later that evening with just soft tissue damage.
For Alcester young scrum half Rich Udall had a good game, his accurate distribution and sniping runs around the breakdown a real feature of his play.
