South eight try late show blows Hereford away

Changes aplenty marked the build up to the Hereford game as South were forced to re jig their line up. Nick Childs to full back, Chris Mark to wing, Stu Bale in at lock for the unavailable Sam Badham, Wes Cartwright back at 7, Marcus Badham in at hooker while Josh McLaurin, Mark Bayley and ex Tigers favourite and current South DOR Steve Booth on the bench.

South were sluggish initially giving the impetus to Hereford who started brightly. Their robust (some would say over robust) style of play put South onto the back foot. Visiting fly half Rees slotted a penalty to open the scoring as South were caught out. Against the run of play and with South’s first meaningful attack Nick Child’s finished off a flowing move in the left hand corner. Mark Lord converted with a fine kick.
Back came Hereford to score an unconverted try by lock Bullock as the visitors put together some concerted attacks that belied their lowly league status. For the first half an hour it was all the visitors as South conspired to lose possession in contact on at least eleven occasions and failed to control the game. Hereford had the chance to lengthen their narrow lead, but a long range penalty fell short. Lord took South back into the lead with a penalty of his own and just before the half time whistle South awoke from their slumber.
That man Childs touched down after some good approach work from Connor Smith and Matt Fisher. Lord converted to give South a 17 – 8 lead at half time.

The second half kicked off with Hereford pressing again and a raft of replacements taking the field for both sides. Mark Bayley came on for Dan Robson, while Josh McLaurin replaced Stu Bale.

Although Lord was short with a long range penalty on the hour, South took the game by the scruff of the neck and produced ten minutes of scintillating rugby which gleaned six tries and blew Hereford away.
Matt Fisher showed his exceptional pace by running out of defence and surging past defenders at will for a superb long range try. Lord converted.
Josh McLaurin scored wide on the right in a cameo appearance before having to retire with a recurring hamstring injury, to be replaced by Steve Booth with Chris Mark going into the back row. Lord converted to take him past 1000 points since South were promoted into level five Rugby.
Childs got the next try after a determined strong run through a host of defenders. Lord converted again. Fisher was on hand to support a Lord half break and basketball pass to finish under the posts. Lord’s conversion was a formality.
A penalty try was added to the tally as Hereford tried to stem the tide, again converted by Lord. The final icing on the cake went to Fisher who outpaced the tiring Visitors defence to burn over with Lord adding the extras.

Phew!

Even though Hereford lost their hooker Miles to a yellow card for the last five minutes, South conceded a dubious penalty try as Jordan Curtis went for an interception in defence and knocked on. It certainly wasn’t a clear cut chance of a score and just about summed up the referees overall performance.

Apart from the try scoring feast the lineout went well especially Marcus Badham consistently finding Mike March at the back to provide quick off the top attacking ball. It was also good to see Jordan Curtis taking on the opposition at every opportunity and dynamo Wes Cartwright everywhere in the loose even after being laid out by his own captain!
Another cameo appearance this time by the human spinning top Steve Booth added to the entertainment as South cruised to victory now with 35 tries in the bag.

Team: Childs, Mark, Fisher, Smith, Curtis, Lord, McFedries, Bale C, Cartwright, March ©, Bale S (McLaurin -Booth), Antill, Truijens, Badham M, Robson (Bayley).

Men of the Match: Nick Childs (a revelation at full back) and the class act that is Matt Fisher.