A Mose Wonderful Time

38

Birmingham
Moseley

V

7

Clifton

Moseley started proceedings kicking up the slope for an early passage of open play. They had a couple of rapid breaks down the left wing, one such ending with a close range attacking line out. A catch and drive was eventually brought to ground, the ball coming to Tuoyo Egodo who gathered his own clever chip to score, Jack Jolly with a fairly simple conversion.

Clifton started to have the lion’s share of the ball but were unable to make any impression on their hosts. Another break from Egodo was stopped just short to set up an extended period at close range. They managed to get the ball across the line but the referee adjudged it held up and Clifton cleared from the goal line drop out.

The hosts continued to refuse further advances from their visitors. A fast move up field resulted in a penalty to touch and a 5 metre line out. This time the catch and drive was successful, Ben Pogson touching down. A difficult conversion going wide, the referee blew for half time shortly afterwards

The opening of the second period saw the visitors beginning to gain some traction. They had their own session at close range, William Owen eventually breaking through under the posts, Thomas Quinlan with the kick.

Moseley’s response was immediate, just about retaining possession at a scrappy lineout a switch pass came to Sam Clarke who sped into the 22 but was hauled down just short of the line in the left corner. Retaining possession and camped in the 5 metre channel the referee signalled an advantage. With free ball a cross-field kick was sent to the right corner for Smith, who had changed sides, to gather and score, another difficult kick missing the target

With a quarter of the match remaining Moseley turned on the taps. Ethan Priest would finish off some more forwards pressure with an overlap for the bonus point, Jolly adding the extras. A line out to the visitors just inside home territory was turned over, the ball came to Fred Ma’a who surged into the 22. Playing with another advantage they put on a bit of an exhibition with some wonderful passing going through three or four sets of hands before finding Smith again to score and confirm his man of the match performance. Having taken over the kicking duties Tighe Maxwell-Whiteley duly obliged

They were not quite finished. A long range penalty from just inside Clifton territory bounced back into play off the foam pads of the posts. Moseley gathered the loose ball and were passing it down the line, another score looking inevitable. Visiting blindside Oliver Stirling stretched out an arm and got a yellow card for his troubles for a deliberate knock on. The resultant penalty to touch on 5 metres and an inevitable catch and drive. The ball was passed of the back to Ben Pogson. With no one in front of him he dived into the corner by the club house, to raucous celebrations from the home support, Maxwell-Whiteley bringing the curtain down on proceedings.

Adam Balding was understandably please with the result. He commented that rugby is a simple game and the coaches and the team had been working hard over the last eight weeks to simplify things. Over the last two weeks they have simplified it further. “It was proper rugby. It’s a game of percentages and we managed those percentages better”