Sat 14 Mar 2026
Alcester 44 Bromyard 12
Alcester returned to winning ways with a comprehensive victory over their Herefordshire based visitors, one of only three sides to have beaten the red and blacks this season, after the home victory in the reverse fixture earlier in the season.
In front of a sizeable Kings Coughton crowd, enjoying the early Spring weather conditions, Alcester were made to wait for the ball by Bromyard, who retained possession for the opening five minutes of the game, playing up the slope, without ever really threatening the home defence with any penetration.
When Alcester won the ball back their attacks looked far more incisive and the game was only twelve minutes old when Jack Green, playing on the right wing in this game, bull dozed his way over for the opening try.
The home side used the benefit of the slope to keep on the front foot, although they were guilty of over complicating things in attack, a little, and also weren’t as accurate with ball to hand as they usually are, so some chances to increase the score line were wasted.
Eventually, just before the half an hour mark in the game, Green doubled both his and his side’s tally to increase the home lead to 10-0, after both tries out wide were not converted.
In the final ten minutes of the half, the game really came to life. An altercation and a bout of “hand bags” saw three yellow cards brandished by the referee, one to the home side and two to Bromyard.
Shortly afterwards, hooker Max Biltcliffe crashed over, with his side with the man advantage, but was adjudged to have been held up over the line, before no 8 and man of the match, Lewis Wright, powered through the visitors’ defence to score under the posts, after a trademark run. Skipper Ed Gough converted.
Josh O’Connor scored Alcester’s fourth and bonus point try after a typically bullish run, cutting back on the angle to power his way over, and in the closing stages of the half, skipper Gough charged down an attempted Bromyard clearance, before Lewis Wright collected the loose ball to score his second try under the posts, from which Gough added the extras to leave his side with a commanding 29-0 lead at the break.
The second half resumed with the three sin binned players still missing, and the home side made it four tries in the yellow card period, with wing Lewis Walker scoring early in the second half.
With the full contingent of players for both sides restored, skipper Ed Gough dummied his way to the try line and added his side’s seventh try, before replacement scrum half, Rich Udall, on at half time for Will Silk, scored the individual try of the game. He collected the ball at the base of a breakdown, just inside the Bromyard half, and set off on a sniping run through the gaps in the visitors defence to race away to score, and to be met with the loudest touchline cheer of the afternoon in doing so.
With replacements too to the Alcester pack, sacrificing weight for mobility, the home side were under increasing pressure in the set phases and the visitors began to enjoy their best moments of the game. They were camped deep in Alcester territory, but a stray pass was intercepted by Lewis Wright and he galloped three quarters of the length of the field, for what he thought was his sides’ ninth try, only for play to be brought back by the referee, due to an off the ball altercation, which saw Alcester’s Josh O’Connor yellow carded and Bromyard’s Harry Bowen receiving a second yellow, and therefore a red card for his part in the incident.
Moments later, the visitors got the score that their increasing forward domination had threatened to bring the scoreline to 44-7 after the referee awarded a penalty try, which also saw Alcester prop Dev Jacobs yellow carded.
Within two minutes, and already now holding the numerical advantage, Bromyard benefitted from it being 14 players to Alcester’s 12, after Nigel Burrows received a second yellow for a technical infringement, and therefore his final marching orders.
In the closing stages, the visitors scored their second try to leave the final scoreline at 44-12.
Alcester are on their travels next week against another Herefordshire based side, when they visit Ledbury for a 3pm kick off.
Alcester’s 2nd XV are also back in action when they travel to the East of the county to play high flying Newbold, whilst the 3rd XV are due to host tBirmingham Solihull 2nds, with all games kicking off at 3pm.
