Worcestershire & Herefordshire U18 Colts 22 Greater Birmingham 7
Houghton-Harries Trophy 12.04.23 played at Droitwich RFC
W&H started strongly & took the lead after a midfield penalty was kicked to touch on the 10m line, the resulting catch & drive rumbled forwards before Ledbury hooker Cody Richardson-Wall broke off and crashed over wide on the left. Fly half Iolo Bubb, one of 9 Ledbury boys in the squad converted superbly from close to the left touchline to give W&H a 7-0 lead.
W&H scored again on 20 mins, following a scrum 10m out on the right the ball was spun through the backs for left wing Max Cook to score in the corner, conversion was missed 12-0.
The 3rd W&H try quickly followed after a GB penalty to touch on the left, the resulting line out was picked off at the back & following a ruck the backs loaded the short side & put Max Cook in for his 2nd try in the left corner, again the conversion was missed. 17-0
Finally as the half drew to a close GB exerted some pressure following a W&H yellow card for persistent offences but superb W&H defence forced a penalty for holding on with the score W&H 17 GB 0.
The second half started with a period of sustained GB pressure but the W&H defence again held firm until on 50 minutes a midfield GB knock on was hoofed forwards by Ledbury right wing Charlie Pallett who successfully played football all the way to the line before dropping on the loose ball, conversion missed making the score 22-0.
GB continued to batter away at the W&H defence which stood firm until they finally got some reward with 5 mins remaining. Following another W&H yellow, GB pressure on the right resulted in Old Yards outside centre Aren Peace-Minihan ignoring a 2 man overlap to crash over for a try that was converted by Moseley centre Lewis Simpson to make the final score W&H 22 GB 7 The W&H coaches Man of the Match Award went to Ledbury No 8 Ben Roberts.
Referee: Will Hemming
A/R’s: Lewis Courtney & Callum Crouch
W&H
1 Ben LEWIS (Ledbury)
2 Cody RICHARDSON-WALL (Ledbury)
3 Ed WALLIIN (Ledbury)
4 Francis SHIELS (Worcester)
5 Warwick ARCHER (Luctonians)
6 Moises TSHIANGALA (Dudley Kingswinford)
7 Danny ROBSON (Hereford)
8 Ben ROBERTS (Ledbury)
9 Rhys LEWIS (Luctonians)
10 Iolo BUBB (Ledbury)
11 Max COOK (Hereford)
12 Curtis WILLIAMS (Ledbury)
13 Ben DEARDS (Ledbury)
14 Charlie PALLETT (Ledbury)
15 James GIBBONS (Dudley Kingswinford)
16 Ben HYDE (Hereford)
17 George WHEATLEY (Worcester)
18 Toby NEWMAN (Malvern College)
19 Oscar VICKERS (Worcester)
20 Josh BISHOP (Ledbury)
21 Ewan LEWIS (Luctonians)
22 Shelton STANLEY (Worcester)
Coaches: Gareth Richards (Malvern College), Chris Wallin & Gareth Bubb (Both Ledbury)
Team Manager: Trevor Humphrey (Ledbury/W&H)
Greater Birmingham
A Tommy Fakeye (Camp Hill)
B Owen Thomas (Sutton Coldfield)
C Sullivan Bolton (Kings Norton)
D Jude Miller (Sutton Coldfield)
E Jay Poole (Bournville)
F Joshua Pearson (Camp Hill)
G Oliver Coldicott (B’ham Moseley)
H Charlie Spencer (B’ham Moseley)
I Louis Olivier (Sutton Coldfield)
J Harry Vlakhis (Aston Old Eds)
K Fred Doughty (Sutton Coldfield)
L Lewis Simpson (B’ham Moseley)
M Aren Peace-Minihan (Old Yards)
N Kobi James (B’ham Moseley)
O Jamie Lynch (Camp Hill)
P Ray J (Veseyans)
Q Mufazzal Baig (B’ham Moseley)
R Kian Fatemifar (Bournville)
S Stephen Latham (Camp Hill)
T Jobe Simpson (Camp Hill)
U Ed Stevens (Aston Old Eds)
V Noelie Byrne (B’ham Moseley)
