Oswestry pile on the points to secure league title

On a sunny and fine day Oswestry travelled to Essington knowing that a bonus point victory would leave them league champions with 3 games still to play. Oswestry were keen to get the game underway and from the kick off Oswestry had a dream start within 2 minutes Dec Betteley who was making his second appearance for the first team shot a pass out finding Connor Bishop who ran in to score the first try. Iwan Ellis converted the try and Oswestry were 7 points up.

It was clear that the intention of the Oswestry team was to try and score as many as possible. Again from the kick off Oswestry found themselves camped in the home sides half and Captain Gaz Ellis was quick to act to score the second Oswestry try. His brother Iwan Ellis slotted the ball over to quickly move on to 14 points.

It all looked a bit one sided as Oswestry would not allow the home team out of their half the speed of the Oswestry team on the locals was impressive and once again the Oswestry team had the ball and Jacob Jones on a glorious run made the pass to Luke Beckett to score the third try again converted by Iwan Ellis and after 10 minutes Oswestry were 21 points up.

The locals did not give up and moved into the Oswestry half but again Oswestry were too rapid to allow things to slip and more football than rugby by Jacob Jones and Connor Bishop saw the both run down the offside wing kicking the ball on and to each other a number of times until Connor Bishop was able to plant the ball over the try line and give the Oswestry team the bonus point championship league title. Oswestry were now 26 points up.

The locals pressed hard in the Oswestry half trying desperately to put a score on the board but the Oswestry defence was too strong and Luke Hassell charged through the defence to score the 5th Oswestry try The lead went up to 31

5 minutes later Luke Beckett found himself in a bit of space and went on one of his dodging runs before passing to Fletcher Owen-Youens who showed his pace to run in the 6th Oswestry try. Iwan Ellis converted the try and the score moved on to 38.

There was time in the half for Oswestry to score another 3 trys by Luke Hassell and 2 from Connor Bishop and with the conversions kicked Iwan Ellis extended the Oswestry score by 19 points making the half time score 57 points to 0.

The coach Jordan Davies and Lee Rogers were happy with their troops and told them not to take their foot off the pedal.

The local team made some changes at half time and came out with a different attitude which was making a difference to some extent. However the Oswestry team were ruthless in defence and would not allow the locals to cross their line. After nearly 10 minutes of pressure Luke Beckett was able to break out and score the 10th try. The score moved on to 62.

8 minutes later the new scrum half who was having a great game was able to jink his way through to score the 11th try converted by Iwan Ellis making the score 69.

The locals plodded on trying to please a few supporters that were there but Oswestry through Luke Beckett and the boot of Iwan Ellis added 2 more trys making the final score 81 points to 0.

Man of the match was a difficult choice with some good play, all the trys scored by Connor Bishop and Luke Beckett the trys made by Rory Kershaw and obviously all the forwards. The final decision was given to Declan Betteley.

Next week Oswestry are at home to Market Drayton who are in second place behind Oswestry. Oswestry who cannot be caught have 89 points with second place Market Drayton and Barton both with 73.