Battling OEs overcome Moseley power play

A disciplined, highly impressive second half performance secured Elthamians a hard-fought win in a bruising contest at a freezing Billesley Common.

Birmingham Moseley 10
Old Elthamians 14

An exhausted Ollie Claxton summed it up best.

Catching his breath on the sidelines after being replaced in the second half of this bruising and physically draining National One contest, the OEs scrum-half, having just completed another outstanding afternoon’s work, admitted: “That was so tough. Every time I looked up from the base of a scrum or ruck, I couldn’t see any space at all, just red and black shirts.”

He was not wrong.

Battling Elthamians kept their promotion hopes on track thanks to a highly accomplished second half performance. But they were taken to the wire by a Birmingham Moseley side whose heavy artillery caused no end of problems in the first half, and whose line speed in defence and first-up tackling were impressive throughout.

It was bitingly cold across Billesley Common, but this was a ferociously competitive and physical battle to warm the hardy, and vociferous, souls sitting in the stand. With two outstanding defences dominant and space out wide at a premium, genuine try-scoring chances were few and far between. It was hard-hitting, it was unforgiving and the close quarter exchanges up front were, at times, brutal as both teams smashed into each other from the first whistle.

OEs Director of Rugby Gavin Lach had described the game beforehand as ‘a massive banana skin’ and his fears were well founded early on.

For the third successive week, Elthamians conceded a score in the opening exchanges, this time inside 40 seconds as they were penalised from the kick-off for not releasing, and prolific Moseley centre James Williams made no mistake with the resulting kick at goal.

OEs hit back quickly, Fred Hosking stealing successive lineouts, the second of which resulted in a penalty on the edge of the Moseley 22, Tom White converting to level the scores.

Moseley boast a powerful, well drilled set of forwards, as good any in the division, and their speciality, the rolling maul - which resulted in a hat-trick of tries for hooker Ryan Roach in the previous week’s clash at Rotherham - was quickly put into action early on.

Four penalties in the opening 11 minutes were all kicked to the corner by Williams, to set up the ensuing catch and drive from the lineout. After being repelled by impressive OEs defence the first time, Moseley looked to have scored with the second attempt when they piled over the try line and the referee awarded the try, only to reverse his decision after consulting his assistant who spotted a knock on.

It was a let-off for Elthamians who were now under heavy pressure and when they were penalised for a fourth time as another maul was brought down a few metres from their line, OE skipper Hamish Barton was shown a yellow card for, in the referee’s words, ‘tackling the maul.’

To their credit, the 14-man OEs defence held firm and using the scrum, which was rock solid all afternoon - thanks to outstanding performances from the front row union of man of the match Lewis Brown, Nathan Morris and Stef North - as a platform from which to build, they began to claw their way back into the game.

However, they were reduced to 14 men again a minute before the interval when Dom Lespierre was harshly shown a yellow card for a high tackle when it appeared that Moseley winger Sam Pointon had tripped and stumbled into the OEs winger before he could even raise his arms to make a tackle.

This time, the home side were quick to capitalise on the extra man advantage. Williams kicked to the corner and the resulting catch and drive allowed Adam Caves to crash over for the game’s opening try.

Again, Elthamians struck back immediately. From the restart, a strong burst from James Golledge and a sniping break from Claxton took the visitors deep into home territory and earned a penalty, White again converting to cut the deficit to just four points at the interval.

Having soaked up everything the Moseley forwards could throw at them in the opening 40 minutes, Elthamians started the second half brightly and quickly took a stranglehold they were never to relinquish for the remainder of the contest.

Monopolising possession against a tiring home pack and playing percentage, risk-free rugby, they worked patiently through multiple phases, switching play to both flanks as they poked and probed away at the wall of red and black shirts in front of them.

With both sets of backs having little space to work in, it became an energy-sapping war of attrition as Elthamians pinned the home side deep in their own territory for long periods, their ball carriers grinding out the hard yards, sucking in defenders, before moving play wide again.

Such was Elthamians’ territorial dominance in the second period, that the home side only crossed the halfway line once and that came from a penalty kick to touch on 61 minutes.

It’s a tribute then to the work rate of the Moseley defence that the visitors, for all their invention and industry with the ball in hand, were rarely able to get in behind the first up line of tacklers and make significant yardage. When they did break the gain line, the final pass or off-load would often go astray.

Tom White hit the crossbar with a penalty attempt on 55 minutes and Lespierre and George Perkins both had strong runs down the flank as Elthamians cranked up the pressure without ever threatening to cross the whitewash.

They were in need of some inspiration and it arrived thanks to a double substitution. Replacements Charlie Dockery and Michael Kovacic have had a habit of coming up with crucial scores this season and their arrival on the field on 57 minutes sparked Elthamians' best attacking moment of the half.

On 65 minutes, White sent a clever chip over the on-rushing Moseley defence and as the home full-back Mike Penn went to dive on the loose ball, Dockery, speeding down the middle like the Roadrunner, was able to kick through and gather. The ball was recycled quickly for White to throw a long pass out to Kovacic on the wing and the replacement flanker did well to hold off one tackler and touch down in the corner.

With only a one point lead to protect and still everything to play for, Elthamians were simply outstanding in the final 10 minutes. They forced Moseley to build from deep inside their own 22 thanks to smothering defence, forced a turnover and then protected the ball through phase after phase to run down the clock.

To add insult to injury for the home side, a flare-up in the forwards following a scrum on the edge of their own 22 resulted in a yellow card for lock CZ Osazuwa and White slotted over the resulting three pointer in front of the posts a minute from time to cap a highly impressive second half Elthamians performance.

SCORERS:
Old Elthamians:
Tries: Kovacic 65
Pens: White 6, 40, 80

Old Elthamians: A Brown, Lespierre, Moffat, Golledge, Perkins, White, Claxton; L Brown, Morris, North, Hosking, Preocanin, Ledger, Barton, King. Replacements: Bevans-Royston, Rudland-Thomas, Kovacic, Morgan, Dockery.