Erdington played an away fixture at Aldridge playing their second team. It was clear from the start the the E’s were up for this one, and dominated Aldridge from the off and throughout the game.
We didn’t have to wait long for the first try, a sublime kick from Dan Moran saw Kam leap for the ball on the touch line like a Scottish salmon return to his spawning grounds in the lochs, who then after a great run, off loaded then ball for debutant Jack Stokes to score unopposed under the post’s try converted.
From the kick off again Erdington dominated just about every area of the game, the scrums never took a backward step and exerted extreme pressure on the Aldridge 8, the line outs were working perfectly securing our own ball and knicking a few of the Aldridge ball.
The ball was taken deep into the Aldridge half with wave after wave of forward pressure, with just inches from the try line Dan Moran took the ball from the back of the ruck and with a quarterback sneak managed to just touch the whitewash, try unconverted. This was all the scoring action from the first half with Erdington turning round at 12-0.
The second half carried on as the first, only Erdington were now playing up the slight hill and again dominated all around the park, the rucks were working really well with the back row appearing to get to the breakdown first securing our ball allowing the team to dominate.
The next scoring action fell to Andy Bricknall who caught a ball virtually on the half way line and returned it with interest running through and around to oncoming defence to score under the posts great solo effort, try converted.
The try’s kept coming a great passage of play saw quick ball go through the hands of both backs and forward to eventually the ball being shipped out to Cleggy on the wing who was only 10 meters from the try line with 2 players to beat surely he would run straight through them to dot down, a gasp was let out from the travelling supporters as he’d passed the ball out to Bones who had provided great support on the wing and scored unopposed in the corner, what a great team effort, try unconverted.
With the away fans still reeling that Cleggy had offloaded that last pass they nearly missed the next passage of play that saw the golden flowing locks of skipper Luke Badland take the ball from within his own half and proceed up the pitch on a 50 meter run, he looked like Bo Derek in the film 10 running up the beach with his hair glistening in the sunshine, however he appeared to either unselfishly ship the ball to Ash Prosser who scored unopposed in the corner or more likely, he ran out of gas, try unconverted.
The pressure was immense from Erdington and they were not done yet, Ryan Hatton punched yet another hole through the Aldridge defence to score with half the away team hanging on to his coat tails, this getting to be a habit, try converted.
The last moment of the game goes to Dave Butlin scoring his first senior try from a well worked move that saw him open on the wing and with a shimmy and slight step, saw him score in the left hand corner, try unconverted.
That saw the end of the days play with Erdington once again setting their stall out from the off and getting back to winning ways with the final score 41-0, that being said Aldridge proved a real tough opposition and made Erdington work hard for every try and every bit of possession.
Special mention’s goes to Jack Stokes and to Jack Cox who made his first senior team debut and didn’t look out of his depth in the obvious step up to senior rugby.
The whole team put in a massive shift and it was difficult to pick out a man of the match as once again the whole team could have been awarded it, however for all the unseen work at the breakdown always getting up from the bottom of a ruck with either the ball turned over or secured, the accolade must go to Chris Jones, Great game.