Ledbury 30 - 7 Aston Old Edwardians

Aston's interest in any Cup progress came to an end at Ledbury. Aston once again fielded a mixture of old heads and young legs, including Tom Dartnell making his First Team debut, and they competed throughout. They could, however, not win a big enough share of the ball or get enough "go forward" to be in contention at the final whistle. The performance did represent an improvement on the previous game but the presence of Darren Gardener was sorely missed. Aston were caught cold at the kick off and could not resist a swift attack which saw the left winger get across in the left hand corner and his try was converted.
Ledbury kept the visitors at full stretch and Aston produced some efficient tackling though they were often penalised for their efforts. Eventually, the Ledbury kicker found his range and Aston faced a ten point deficit. This spurred them on to mount a strong fight back and, after driving a line out fifteen metres, they got a reward in the shape of a yellow card for the Ledbury man who collapsed the maul. The next scrum saw the excellent Ed White cross from five metres and new scrum half, Ian Lyons had an easy task with the conversion. This completed the scoring for the half and left Ledbury with a three point lead.

The home side extended their lead with a penalty and quickly scored a try on the right after Aston attempted to keep the ball on the field when it might have been better to put it out. Aston continued to have plenty of tackling practice, though they also had plenty of attacking opportunities too, but turning these into points they found difficult. They then exerted great pressure close to the Ledbury line and might have scored on a couple of occasions but the ball was eventually hoofed clear and the home side went on to score the day's best try with a dozen passes strung together on the final whistle.

Aston worked hard at their tackling and shirked nothing, with Carl Stephenson outstanding, but their forwards, generally, did not achieve the necessary mobility around the field to be where the action was. This is a fitness issue and needs to be addressed individually as a matter of urgency.