Rams nilled by determined defence

19

Birmingham
Moseley

V

0

Rams

Jon Meadows reports

Despite the mizzle and a heavy pitch the game started at a high tempo. Rams kicked off down the slope, and following the opening exchanges a kick up field from the visitors found Freddie Painter on his own 22. He ran down the left wing to chip and chase, the covering defender just winning the foot race but knocked on in the process, giving Moseley a 5 metre scrum. A subsequent penalty was kicked to touch. With Moseley on the five metres a catch and drive turned into an unstoppable 14 man maul, Ryan Roach touching down, Jack Jolly missing a difficult kick.

Try as they might, Rams were unable to break through a resolute defence. Harry Stone did make a break into the home 22 but coming into contact he had no real support and passed into an empty space, Moseley gathered and cleared the danger. It would be the hosts who had the next scoring chance, Austin Nevitt breaking through to within about ten metres before being snagged. The ball was recycled and sent out to Painter who sprinted for the line, an excellent covering tackle forcing him into touch just short.

Rams started to dominate possession and territory, but despite several close quarter line outs they were unable to find any gaps and an entertaining half finished with a narrow five point lead to the hosts.

Playing down the slope the home team started the second half brightly, another short range lineout was initially grabbed by the defence but Moseley ripped the ball back for Will Safe to burrow through, Jack Jolly converting.

Moseley continued to snuff out their visitors’ attacking efforts and started to disrupt their line out. The home pack maintained the upper hand and nearly scored again from a catch and drive, the ball being held up and a goal line drop out. The kick came to Tuoyo Egodo who broke through before feeding Smith, running a great line to sprint in from distance to mark his 100th appearance, sparking wild celebrations from players and spectators alike. Jolly made no mistake with the kick.

With 15 minutes left Rams continued to apply pressure but to no avail. Even when Dan Brough was carded for a deliberate knock on Moseley’s defensive line refused to yield. With time almost up the visitors chipped through to the five metre line but the ball was safely gathered and punted into touch for the final whistle.

Adam Balding praised the game management and work rate of a complete team performance, both with and without the ball. He said that the coaches need to be mentioned for the hard work they have had to put in to change the way we were doing things, and to produce what he thought was the best performance of the season.