Malvern U13s at North Midlands Tournament Cup Final 13/03/11
Mar
FINAL
Malvern Stags U13 - 5
Luctonians U13 - 12
Malvern Stags narrowly missed out on a cup final win after qualifying from a tough Pool and seeing off Moseley in their semi-final.
In their first pool game, some great tackling and hard forward play earned the Stags an equalising score to end up sharing the points with Droitwich (5-5). This was followed up with a fine six try win against Old Halesonians; Curtis, Stratton and Robinson scoring in the first half and Whiteman and Hayes adding their names to the score sheet in the second. Batty added five conversions to his tally to round off an impressive Stags performance (40-0).
To secure a place at the top of the pool Malvern had to win against old rivals Ledbury and duly obliged with an outstanding performance all over the field for a three try to one victory (15-7).
Malvern’s semi-final was mostly one way traffic as the larger Moseley pack failed to contain an alert and focussed Stags forward line. Curtis was a constant threat but inevitably it was Robinson and Whiteman who scored the points to see the Stags through to a well deserved place in the cup final (14-7).
They made a poor start to the cup final, conceding an early try when they lost their shape at the kick off and allowed the Luctonians backs to run around them. Having taken an early blow the Stags fought back and a steal by the forwards after an advantage was played for a Lucs knock on lead to an Atkins equaliser. Before the end of the half, Hayes further enhanced his full back reputation with another fine try saving tackle when Lucs broke on the left wing.
In the second half the Stags took control and played most of the game in opposition territory but failed to use their width to turn possession into points. This ultimately proved costly as Stags lost concentration and got sucked towards the ball leaving a huge defensive hole on their right wing. Lucs immediately exploited this when they managed to regain possession and scored the winner with the last move of the game firmly against the run of play.
