Rearranged fixture

Castle were in action this week against third placed Cleobury Mortimer in a rearranged fixture, the two sides had met only 4 weeks earlier in the reverse fixture that was played in horrendous conditions with Castle running out narrow winners.

Following the over night rain the pitch was subject to an inspection but was passed fit, so game on. If Castle could continue where they finished last week when they beat second placed Ludlow and results went their way, they had the opportunity to go second in the league.

Whether it was this added pressure or the conditions that could account for the errors and lack of continuity in Castles first half display, where they struggled to control the game and gave away too many penalties.

When Castle did put phases together and controlled the play they scored 3 tries and 1 conversion, put in between this they gave Cleobury 5 shots at goal put Cleobury only scored 2 then with the last play of the half Cleobury went over in the corner to make the half time score 17- 11.

Castle had decided to go in at half time and change into dry shirts, the half time I instructions were to play behind their wingers and don't give them easy exit routes.

As the second half started the heavens opened and the weather mirrored that from the last fixture. But Castle carried out the half time instructions to the letter, they applied the pressure in the right areas and gave no easy exits to Cleobury who spent the whole 40 minutes defending their line. To their credit they did a pretty good job coupled with the terrible handling conditions and the conditions under foot getting worse by the minute, Castle were finding it hard to score the bonus point try. Then a moment of quick thinking from Angus saw him tap and slid in from the five meter line.

Castle continued to dominate territory and their last try came after another great kick behind their winger, Castle stole the resulting lineout and it was drove over by the whole team to emphasise the togetherness of the team, and to top it off Dom converted it with the last kick of the game.

Another fantastic win for Castle and results did go their way and they now sit second with a game in hand over Ludlow and Cleobury.

Castle now need to maintain this attitude and spirit over the next three weeks which will bring the third quarter of the season to a close. We will then sit down and evaluate what we need to do going into the last quarter.

Wayne - 2
Dom-1
Angus-1
Sam-1

Dom -2 convs