Midlands North 2 Round 13 – January 7
This weekend Pavs welcomed Newark RUFC to The Stump in round 13 of the Midlands 2 North league competition. Historically, there has always been a competitive edge in games between the two sides, with bragging rights up for grabs. Whilst Pavs have, perhaps, held the upper hand in recent times, Newark’s convincing home victory in the reciprocal fixture served to ensure that there was no complacency in the Pavs squad as kick off approached.
Pavs received the kick off and embarked on their best opening period of the season. Before the away side had touched the ball, Pavs had made their way to the Newark line for Tom Gladwin to finish off a fine sweeping movement on two minutes. This was followed by a Matt Molyneux try and George Billam conversion to give Pavs a 12-0 lead on eight minutes.
More was to come on eighteen minutes when speedy wing Will Taylor outpaced his positional opponent to race in untouched and with the extras via Billam give Pavs an emphatic 19-0.
At this stage Newark began to find their feet in the game and were justly rewarded with a try of their own on twenty two minutes to bring the score to 19-5. Late in the half, battling hooker, Owen Taylor, completed another fine movement and scored out wide to bring the half time score to 24-5 in favour of the home side.
Straight after the break, scrum half, Ben Taylor touched down following a strong forward driving maul to push Pavs further ahead at 29-5.
On forty seven minutes and with Newark pushing hard for another score, wing Alex Rimmington read the play, before intercepting the pass and racing in untouched between the post and with the Billam extras push Pavs seemingly out of touch at 36-5.
Pavs introduced Harry Kerr to replace Morgan Jones in the centre and Tom Ryan for Theo Collier on the front row.
Newark then scored two converted tries on fifty three and sixty four minutes to redress matters and bring the score to a more reasonable 36-19. With six minutes left on the clock number 8 Phil Eggleshaw broke from the scrum before offloading to Will Taylor who went in for his second try of the game.
Pavs had to defend strongly in the last minutes as Newark fought for a bonus point. Unfortunately for them, they were not able to score with the official signalling the end of the game with Pavs finally victorious at 41-19. ( Pavs 7 tries, 3 conversions, Newark 3 tries, 2 conversions)
All in all, a most encouraging day for Pavs. An excellent opening period allowed them to grab the initiative, a position they never relinquished. Following some erratic performances at the start of the season, Pavs have now won eight from the last nine games, a fact that positions them third in the league. Whilst this is highly pleasing in itself, Pavs know that there are still more challenges to come, no more so than next weekend when they travel to league leaders Long Eaton RFC.
Starting Squad- Dan Hyams, Owen Taylor (1 try),Theo Collier, Tom Gladwin (1 try), Ben Allen, Josh Alton-Smith (VC), Josh Flanagan, Phil Eggleshaw, Ben Taylor (1 try), George Billam (3 conv), Will Taylor (2 tries), Doug Billam (C), Morgan Jones, Alex Rimmington (1 try), Matt Molyneux (1 try).
Finishers – Jonty Green, Harry Kerr (64 mins), Tom Ryan (64 mins)
Paviors Rugby Club play at Burntstump Hill, Arnold, NG5 8PQ and the club runs over twenty teams.
New players are always welcome – girls, boys, men & women, there is a team for all.
Further information about the club including contact details can be found on http://www.paviorsrfc.co.uk/ .
