Old Laurentians 32 Droitwich RFC 12

Droitwich got their league campaign off to a poor start, when they lost at Rugby based Old Laurentians in the Midlands Division Three West (South) on Saturday.

The whole performance was unsatisfactory as Droitwich produced a lazy lacklustre showing.

In their defence this is a very young side, but the influence of veteran Nick Godfrey was sorely missed, and his return from injury cannot come quickly enough.

It was the visitors who took the lead when Matt Blackmore slotted home a penalty after Phil Horton had made ground.

This lead was extended again by the boot of Blackmore, after Steve Poke and James Davies were involved in a flowing move.

The home side hit back and squeezed over in the corner after a powerful scrum, then took the lead with two neat penalties.

And pressure on the Spa line after strong forward play saw them crash over and convert, to make the half-time score 18-6.

The second half saw Droitwich raise their levels of effort, although they were still often second best in most of the forward exchanges.

Blackmore pegged back the lead with two more penalties, one a fine strike from wide out.

The game now seemed in the balance, but again Laurentians forward power told and they scored again. Then, directly from the kick-off, Droitwich failed to deal with the ball and stood by as the home side wrapped up the game.

Disappointed captain Dean Goddard commented afterwards: “We know the standards we know we can reach, and today we were well short of those standards. e will be working to rectify this as soon as possible.”

l Droitwich under-16s made a strong start to the pre-season by getting the better of Yardley 24-10 in a friendly clash.

Spa scored first after Jack Knight finished off a flowing move with a try, which was converted by Sam Cave.

Yardley levelled the scores but Droitwich edged into a 12-5 lead by half-time when Adam Sutterby broke through to score.

Anton Preece grabbed another try, converted by George Bishop, beforw Yardley pulled one back to make it 19-10.

Victory was sealed when man of the match James Leatherland dived over the line late on.

Sam Adamson enjoyed a fine debut and there were also fine displays by Andy Geoghegan and Alex Knudson for some excellent handling skills.