Saturday 30th October 2010

Following last week’s 1 point defeat to Stoke, Aston returned to winning ways and retained their position at the top of the league with a deserved win against old rivals Lordswood Dixonians

Coach Allan Mitchell was forced into a number of changes, with Ant Brown coming into the Front Row to replace the unfortunate Ian Turner who broke his collarbone in 2 places last weekend. A late cry off saw Luke Harrison promoted to the bench, alongside new signing Francis Nock, and the evergreen Darren Gardner.

Aston started with the intent of adding pace to the game, and their early pressure saw 2 strikes against the head, but some loose passing and handling meant that it was 15 minutes in before the first score came. Unsurprisingly, given Aston’s dominance at the set piece, it came from a 5 yard line-out, that was smartly taken and driven on to allow hooker Adam Baldock to trundle over the line at the back of the rolling maul for his 5th try of the season. Blake Bennett added the conversion to give Aston a 7 point lead.

A succession of penalties frustrated the attempts of both teams to add some fluency to the game. Aston centre Andy Tovey was yellow carded after 18 minutes for a high tackle, and the numerical advantage was used to good effect by the home side as they exerted considerable pressure. Following some good counter rucking, Aston were penalised to allow the Dixonian fly half to bring the score back to 7-3 after 20 minutes, but Bennett responded in kind for Aston 6 minutes later, from 35 yards out.

Dixonians would not lie down though, and the outstanding player on the pitch, right wing Wise Roko brought the home side back into the game when he took a quick tap penalty and ducked under the Aston defence to score in the right corner. With the conversion missed, Aston held a 2 point advantage. Aston responded again via their forwards, with Mick Tate and Mike Goodwin both causing problems, and succeeded in disrupting the Dixonian scrum and forcing penalties to be conceded.

However, with Aston pressing strongly, Roko gathered a loose ball, side stepped out of the midfield traffic, and sprinted 60 yards before Tovey covered back superbly to bring down the winger just feet from the try line. Aston cleared their lines, but again strong running from the Dixonian backline presented another opportunity for a penalty – but the final action of the first half saw the attempt drift wide of the uprights to leave Aston 10-8 ahead.

Francis Nock, who signed for Aston last week from Leicester Lions, was introduced for the second half, and he was soon in the thick of the action. Aston, with the slope to use to their advantage, started the stronger, and a Tovey run was only halted by some good defensive covering. 3 minutes into the second period, Aston took another scrum against the head, at which Dixonians conceded a penalty. Aston opted to take another scrum, and after 2 good drives from the forwards, the ball was released to the backs where Bennett picked out a fine line from Tovey, fed him the ball, and the centre crashed though 2 tackles to score Astons second try of the afternoon. Bennett added the extra points. Just 2 minutes later, some excellent chasing by Baldock secured the ball following a high kick from Bennett, Nock took it on another phase, and Dixonians conceded another penalty 25 yards out. Bennett made no mistake with the kick to extend the lead to 20-8 and it appeared that Aston would now stretch away.

Indeed, it appeared that Bennett would score the next try, when he dummied his way through the Dixonian midfield and coasted in from the 22 metre line – only to have the ball dislodged from his arm when over the try line, by the increasingly impressive Roko.

This seemed to spur Dixonians on, and they poured pressure on through both the forwards and backs. Twice they drove over the line, but the Aston defence was resolute, and determined to hold firm. Tate and Paul Horrocks were constantly making life difficult for the home side’s line out, and succeeded in pinching a couple of throws which helped to relieve the pressure. However, a yellow card for Tate gave Dixonians an opportunity to overturn the deficit, and in the last 10 minutes they threw everything at Aston. Some superb tackling, with centre Andy Wood, winger Dean Morris, Nock and Gardner all prominent, prevented any further scores, and Aston ran out 20-8 victors. Mike Goodwin was named as Aston man of the Match.

Next week, Aston entertain Old Coventrians in the 3rd round of the Intermediate Cup – kick off at 2.00pm

Elsewhere, Aston 2nds defeated Tamworth 15-14, the 3rd team lost to Bournville 45-6 ( with 2 Neil Glasby penalties) whilst the 4th XV went down 28-19 to Old Halesonians, with tries from Michael Bromley, James Beard, John Gadd and 2 conversions by Richard Markham.