HEREFORD RFC held on to a narrow 23-22 victory following a nervy finish at Wyeside against Old Halesonians 22 in a clash at the bottom of the Regional 2 Midlands West.

“What a day at Wyeside,” said Hereford head coach, Scott Sturdy.

“It was a game full of drama when in overtime our visitors scored a try under the sticks, their kicker missed the kick to end the game with a one-point win for Hereford.

“Our lads showed an incredible amount of heart, club spirit and the proper Hereford way of sticking in when times get tough and working hard.

“It’s great to get off the bottom of the table. Having won two games in a row we need to keep building on this and pushing ourselves back up the table to where the club need to be.”

Old Halesonians started strongly and within 10 minutes of kick-off had taken the lead.

A series of five penalties against the Hereford scrum ended with Halesonians pushing over, the conversion attempt failed.

The hosts responded by going through the phrases and won a penalty which Iwan Holder converted from half way.

From the restart, after several phases Joe Vaughan put in a well-judged cross kick, Ollie Hutcheson gathered and after beating two defenders crossed for the try, to give his side a 8-5 lead into the interval.

Halesonians started the second half well and went into a two-point lead with an unconverted try.

The Wyesiders responded from a lineout in the Halesonians 22 with a beautiful edge to edge try, with debutant Harry Sockett diving over in the corner, the conversion missed.

Hereford put relentless pressure on a visitors’ attack which led to a Sockett charge down, Hutcheson picked up the ball and crossed for his second try, Holder added the extra points taking the score to 20-10.

Halesonians turned up the gas and scored with a well worked move from a lineout.

Hereford then worked hard to build on their lead and won a penalty which Holder slotted to take the score to 23-17.

The game went into 12 minutes of overtime, when 10 penalties and a yellow card were awarded against the Wyesiders and Halesonians eventually scored a good try under the posts.

The score was now 23-22 with the kick from in front of the posts to come. The Halesonians kick went wide and Hereford won by the narrowest of margins.

Hereford are now off the bottom of the table and Stratford visit Wyeside next Saturday.