Hereford Rugby Football Club returned to winning ways in style with a 43-8 victory over Kidderminster Carolians at Wyeside on Saturday.
Reporter Rob Davies with the match report:
Hereford extended their unbeaten run at Wyeside to ten games with a comprehensive win over league strugglers, Kidderminster Carolians. This was another victory built around a dominant pack and a well drilled defence, some of the aberrations from last week forgotten on the return to Wyeside. Against the run of play, Kidderminster opened with a well struck penalty goal after 5 minutes, but the Wyesiders racked up three tries before the interval. Kidderminster registered their only try whilst Hereford were a man light, debutant Will Goffey having received a yellow card. At the break Hereford enjoyed a lead of 17 points to 8. In the second half Kidderminster never gave up, but Hereford increased their control and added four further tries. Four conversions took the Hereford overall score to 43 points to 8.
A happy Head Coach, Sean Lynn said,” A good result in the end, to score forty-three points at home is a great. The game was a bit scrappy at first, but as soon as we started playing the phases, we came good. It was really good stuff from the forwards, set piece went really well and it was good to see young James Chamberlain back. I thought he had a very good game as did hooker, Will Goffey on his debut. The strength in depth is coming through and it was great to maintain our undefeated home record, hopefully we can build on it against Lichfield next week. There is nothing more I could ask from the players than the positive reaction shown after the tough loss at Kenilworth. They learned from last week and took their opportunities as they came.”
Hereford were slow to make a start and it was Kidderminster who took an early lead with a penalty goal when Hereford were caught off-side. They soon though, got into their stride going through the phases and putting the visitors under pressure. After a lineout inside the Kidderminster 22, the defence was drawn in and the ball was moved wide for Leon Parsons to score in the corner. A Richard Preece break was carried on by Levi Hughes and Rhys Proctor following up took his pass to cross for try number two. The third Hereford try came from a quick tap penalty which was driven on by Josh Bell, off-loaded to Rhys Proctor, who put Richard Preece in for the try, which Bryn Goodall converted. As the half closed, Kidderminster reduced the deficit with a try in the corner following a driving maul, the conversion failed and the teams changed ends with Hereford leading by 17 points to 8.
Within a minute of the restart Hereford claimed their try bonus when some good handling saw Bryn Goodall outflank the defensive cover, he converted his own try. Kidderminster lost a man for ten minutes in the bin and whilst they were a man short, Hereford won a penalty close to the goal line, opted to take a scrum and drove over for number 8 Josh Bell to touch down. In the final minutes, Tom Starkey and Tom Ewins each added a try and Bryn Goodall improved both of them, taking the final score in favour of Hereford to 43 points to 8.
This was an excellent response to last week’s disappointing loss at Kenilworth. Hereford took a little time to gain any fluency, but as the game progressed, they showed quality in their play and real determination to protect their home record. Next week they will find in Lichfield a distinctly higher level of competition and their game will have to go up another gear or two. Following next week’s game, we have two further home fixtures in February against Stoke and local rivals Ludlow who have hit a rich vein of form recently.
