Newbold 29 pts Hereford 3

HEREFORD'S young side fought hard but had to give best to an experienced Newbold team in this battle between two of the Powergen Midland 2 West strugglers.

With the wind at their backs, Hereford showed early promise as their backs ran and moved the ball swiftly without making the final breakthrough.

They put their hosts under pressure and, when the home team were guilty of killing the ball, Hereford full-back Colin Osborne slotted a penalty to give his team the lead.

Gradually the home pack started to dominate possession, however, supplying good quality ball to their half-backs who used the wind well to establish good field positions.

Newbold levelled when Hereford were caught off-side, and then took an interval lead with two converted tries, both coming from good lineout ball in the Hereford 22-metre area.

Each time the strong home pack caught and controlled the drive towards Hereford's line with the inexperienced visitors struggling to halt their progress.

Hereford flanker Matt Pritchard was outstanding in both defence and, when the opportunity arose, in taking the ball over the gain line and after the break the visiting backs again showed enterprise with scrum-half Ben Jenkins getting his line moving well and Jeremy Grisman and Osborne showing some nice touches.

But as the game wore on it was the home pack who again took control and they put the result beyond doubt when another good catch and drive secured a third converted try.

Hereford did not drop their heads and made a couple of spirited sorties into Newbold territory without being able to finish. Then, with time running out, Newbold made the most of a fortunate bounce to take the ball blind and complete the scoring with an unconverted corner try.