Erdington travelled to Birmingham Exiles for a game against a combined Exiles and Civil Service, the conditions were quite blustery but the rain held off, much to the approval of the number of supporters who had come to watch the game.
The game started with both teams having a decent amount of possession but unable to make any headway with the score. The game moved from end to end and was starting to get a bit fractious with a number of times the ref having to speak to both captains regarding discipline, which appeared to go in one ear and out the other.
Erdington started to show some dominance and a foray into the Exiles/Civil Service half, saw the forwards take the ball, and wave after wave of forward pressure saw a penalty awarded to Erdington quite near to the try line the ref thought long and hard and eventually awarded a penalty try as the infringement clearly stopped a try scoring opportunity.
The game still remained fractious and was turning very scrappy, due to the amount of stoppages regarding discipline, however Erdington again took the ball and after some dominant forward pressure, the ball was released to the backs with Lammy bulldozing and scoring in the corner, great team try, unconverted.
This appeared to give Exiles/Civil Service a lift and after some hard fought work they also dotted down in the corner, try unconverted. The teams turned around at half time 12 – 5 in favour of Erdington.
The second half started in the same vein as the first scrappy and fractious. However there was some excellent rugby on display with both teams shipping the ball about, but Erdington capitalised on an error and saw the ball taken up field, the ball popped out the back of a ruck and was picked up by scrum half Dan Moran with still a good 25 meters to go took off on a run that would see him in a foot race with a couple of the opposing backs, however he managed to hold them off and scored in the right hand corner, try unconverted.
The last real action of the day came about 10 minutes from the end as Erdingtons pack had remained dominant and the ball was shipped out to Lammy who was working hard in the back line, he took the ball from around the opposition’s 22 meter line and barged and bullied his way to the try line taking out a number of the opposing defenders scoring in the left hand corner.
Overall this was a really great victory for Erdington in a really hard fought game with both sets of players waking up on Sunday morning knowing they’ve all been in a really physical game.
The coaching staff were really impressed with the grit shown by the Erdington players to grind out the win.
Man of the match goes to Dan Moran who was dogged and aggressive around the breakdown and also scored an excellent try. This accolade could have gone to any number of players as every man put in some real hard graft.
Final score 22 – 5 in favour of Erdington.