League newcomers too strong...

Leamington opened the league season at “Moorefields” with a fixture against new boys, Worcester Wanderers. Last week the Worcester side suffered a narrow defeat at home, against one of the leagues stronger clubs, Dudley Kingswinford.
The visitors started in a fluent fashion and put Spa under constant pressure which culminated in a try in the corner on seven minutes. Further pressure continued to be exerted by Worcester and it took some robust tackling from Patch Northover, Simon Dudley and Tom Williams to keep the Spa line clear.
Leamington’s first sign of attack came from a strong run by winger, John Raby, which was halted as he entered the Worcester 22 metre area. Then Mark Baldwin finished off a clever piece of play from the Spa back line with strong run down the flank.
With twenty five minutes on the clock, Worcester increased their lead with another unconverted try.
This well balanced side were certainly putting on clinical display and they brought more misery to the home side with a breakaway try, just as Spa seemed to be making inroads into a stubborn defence.
Although Leamington had not been able to put any points on the board they had put together some very impressive counter attacks and Alex Carroll, Williams and Dudley had been pivotal in these.
Half Time: 0 – 17
The visitors hit Spa with immediate pressure after the break and Spa’s scrum half, Patch Northover put in two successive tackles to halt attacks. From the resulting scrum, Worcester stole the ball and raced down the blind side to score.
Spa’s day got even worse, as Worcester claimed the ball from the restart and their right wing, Kieron Morris, raced through to score under the posts.
Whilst reeling from the score line, Spa continued to strike at the visitors with some exciting running and clever passing. Tom Williams, playing his first game since breaking his leg last season, linked expertly with fellow centre, Alex Carroll and fly-half, Simon Dudley. The trio had been instrumental all afternoon in trying to break through the visitor’s defence, without the success their industry deserved.
One of these attacks saw Spa break through the central midfield and superb passing skills saw the ball eventually sped out to Raby on the wing, with the try line calling. However, this final pass, which the winger fielded ankle high, was adjudged just forward. It summed up Spa’s day.
Worcester forced in another try, in the corner, before Spa eventually got some reward for their positive contribution to the match. Simon Dudley, now operating on the wing and having his usual top quality game, took the ball and side stepped his way up field. When he was finally halted, Carroll and Williams were on hand to keep the move. This combination took Spa into the danger area and lock, Simon Harry, in close support, took the ball and crashed over between the posts. Carroll added the conversion.
On this showing, Worcester have the necessary quality to compete for a successive promotion. As despite the final score, Spa had not performed that badly with their forwards competing effectively throughout. Some points on the tally board will calm early season nerves for Spa and on this showing they should not be too far away.
Full Time: 7 – 34
Next week Leamington travel to Stratford, kick-off 3.00pm.