Oswestry beaten again, but are still in contention

Bridgnorth II and Newport II hold the top two positions in the table after victories over Luctonians III and Market Drayton, respectively, with Harborne following in third. Oswestry – who were promoted last season – may be seventh, but they are just six points from the summit in a tightly-contested division.

They fell behind within the opening four minutes as Harborne pushed their way over to take a 7-0 lead.

But Oswestry found their way on to the scoreboard when Luke Hassall made a 20-yard run, crashing through defenders, before being stopped. The referee awarded a penalty to Oswestry and Tom Williams kicked the ball between the posts to bring them back to 7-3 down.

Harborne continued to look dangerous and Nick Clay had to make a try-saving tackle – one of many for the day – before Oswestry got the ball back and were able to kick their way into the Harborne half.

After 30 minutes of hard-hitting tackles, Max Rudd was able to make ground before scrum-half Lewys Cooke’s quick run was able to create space for captain Gaz Ellis, who sprinted over. Tom Williams converted the kick to take Oswestry 10 -7 in the lead.

However, they conceded a number of penalties before half-time and found themselves trailing 16-10 at the interval.

Coaches Jordan Davies and Lee Rogers made it clear that the team needed to react quicker to the ball and to compete against a good team they needed not to concede any penalties.

Oswestry made a good start to the second half, with vice-captain Nick Clay scoring his first try of the season. The conversion was missed and Oswestry were just one point behind at 16-15.

However, Harborne were not going to lie down and continued to kick sensibly, making up ground, followed by their backs being fast in getting to the ball, not allowing the Oswestry defenders to organise any counter-attack.

One of these attacks led to another penalty to Harborne, who kicked their fourth penalty of the day to stretch their lead to three points.

And the match was over when Iwan Ellis knocked the ball on desperately trying to intercept a pass, and his subsequent yellow card left Harborne with a man advantage that they took full advantage of to complete the scoring at 26-15.

Oswestry – with two losses on the trot – have a lot to learn in training during their week off, ahead of their next match at leaders Bridgnorth II on Saturday, October 15.

Elsewhere in the division, Clee Hill edged out Veseyans 24-23 to sit fifth, with county rivals Cleobury Mortimer in sixth after a 42-19 triumph at Burntwood.