RUGBY LEAGUE CONFERENCE REGIONAL CHALLENGE
Sunday 27 July 2008
WEST MIDLANDS 38 – 42 SOUTH
The South staged a dramatic late fightback to overcome the West Midlands 42-38 at a sweltering Chosen Hill on Sunday.
The Midlands had cruised into a seemingly unassailable 32-14 lead but errors began to creep into their play and the South took full advantage to steal the result.
The ‘home’ side looked by far the more assured in the early stages and it was no surprise that they took the lead with a fine try. The lively scrum half Stephan Fourie exchanged passes with Johan Schoeman to score under the posts and convert for a 6-0 lead after six minutes.
The South hit back, making the most of two penalty awards to score firstly through Nick McPherson and then Arron Nelson. With Matt Antis kicking one goal, they led 10-6.
The Midlands then cut loose with fine handling and support play tearing the South defence to shreds. Fourie bagged his second after Ben Constantine released Alan Bryan and the scrum half was on hand to take the scoring pass. Five minutes later, Danny Burke soared through a gap on half way to race to the posts and then three minutes further on, Fourie danced past defenders before freeing his outside men and clever hands from Ronnie Haines put Mike Venn in for the try. Fourie converted two of the three scores.
With a handy 22-10 interval lead, the Midlands looked to turn the screw. Three minutes into the second half, John Hanna broke the line and found Constantine on his shoulder who raced away to the line. Burke converted.
After a golden chance had gone begging when Constantine’s pass to his winger went to ground, the South stemmed the flow, Ross Brooker intercepting a pass to race away for an unconverted try.
The Midlands soon responded as Constantine stretched over from close range to give the Midlands an 18-point lead.
However, three tries in seven minutes from the South put the game right back in the melting pot. Tommy Gray was heavily involved scoring the first with a neat dummy before McPherson grabbed his second try after snapping up a loose ball in his own half. Then an error close to the Midlands line allowed Adam Sanders to score under the posts. With Gray converting all three tries, the scores were level with just under a quarter of the game to go.
The Midlands seemed to have grabbed the upper hand when Constantine fought his way out of tackles to score his third try of the day converted by Fourie but as the clock wound down, they were unable to control possession and kill the game.
A mistake deep in the Midlands 20 saw Sanders force his way over for his second try with five minutes left before, in the last few seconds, Dave Strange reached his own kick to touch down in a scramble of arms and legs. Gray’s conversion put four points between the sides and when Burke’s restart sailed out of play, the South showed how it should be done, controlling the ball for the remaining three tackles of the game to earn a hard-fought win.
Teams:
WEST MIDLANDS: Danny Burke (Gloucestershire Warriors), Johan Schoeman (Bristol Sonics), Alan Bryan, Ben Constantine (both Gloucestershire Warriors), Dave Murray, Dom Swann (both Bristol Sonics), Stephan Fourie (Gloucestershire Warriors), Stafford Lloyd, Harry Marson, Gareth Lloyd, Neil Holder (all Bristol Sonics), Ronnie Haines (Gloucestershire Warriors), Jon Hanna (Redditch Ravens). Replacements: Josh Lloyd, Dave Wheller, Sam Barker, Ed Tofts (all Bristol Sonics), Danny Price, Neys Schreiner (both Gloucestershire Warriors), Michael Venn (Telford Raiders), Tom Saddington (Redditch Ravens).
Scorers: Tries; Stephan Fourie (4, 27), Danny Burke (32), Michael Venn (35), Ben Constantine (43, 52, 66). Conversions: Stephan Fourie 4 from 5, Danny Burke 1 from 2.
SOUTH: Dave Strange (Southampton Spitfires), Rich Sinclair (Bedford Tigers), Arron Nelson, Nick McPherson, Aiden Oakley (all Kent Ravens), Matt Antis (Plymouth Titans), Scotty Hancock (Southampton Spitfires), Gerald Dolan (West London Sharks), Tommy Gray (Southampton Spitfires), Andy Melbourne (East Devon Eagles), Adam Grogan, Adam Sanders (both Southampton Spitfires), Gaz Williams (Plymouth Titans). Replacements: Perry Pudge (Loughborough Uni), Ross Brooker, Andy Flint (West London Sharks), Manbir Mahn (Kent Ravens), Paul Hyder (Hainault Bulldogs).
Scorers: Tries; Nick McPherson (8, 59), Arron Nelson (15), Ross Brooker (47), Tommy Gray (56), Adam Sanders (63, 75), Dave Strange (79). Conversions; Matt Antis 1 from 2, Tommy Gray 4 from 6.
Referee: Glenn Tyreman (Southern RLRS)
Penalties: West Midlands 3, South 9.
Scoring sequence: 6-0, 6-4, 6-10, 12-10, 18-10, 22-10, (HT), 28-10, 28-14, 32-14, 32-20, 32-26, 32-32, 38-32, 38-36, 38-42, (FT).
Despite the defeat for the West Midlands, the seven Gloucestershire Warriors players on show performed well. Ben Constantine scored three tries while Stephan Fourie was lively, scoring twice and kicking four goals. Danny Burke came more into the game when he moved to halfback and scored a good try as well as kicking a goal while the other try came courtesy of Fourie and Ronnie Haines’ inventive work out wide and was scored by Mike Venn who plays for Telford Raiders but is a University of Gloucestershire student.
Alan Bryan proved dangerous out wide particularly when setting up Fourie’s second try while Danny Price and Neys Schreiner put in solid performances and contributed fully when they were called from the bench.
Coaches Dom Swann and Karl Fearnley were disappointed at the result but felt that the players selected had put themselves in the frame to become the core of next season’s squad and hopefully to figure in a strong West Midlands challenge for the planned Regional Championships.
Glenn Tyreman was pleased overall with the way his new-look South squad had responded to adversity on the field and while he felt some players had not done themselves justice others had taken their chance well.
He was pleased with the standard of rugby played and hoped that should the players maintain that form then the South of England Origin side would be a formidable team.
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Chris Wilson
Media Manager, Gloucestershire Warriors RLFC
Tel: +44 (0)1684 850903
Mobile: + 44 (0)7905 931033
Email: gloswarriors2004@aol.com
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The Gloucestershire Rugby League is an organisation for local rugby league clubs in Gloucestershire. Our main activity currently is to promote rugby league through the County and give useful information about our sport to the public of Gloucestershire.
