South demolish Hereford in twelve try exhibition

South entertained Hereford at Welford Road in a N3M league game originally due to have been played during the recent cold spell. A 2pm kick off enabled both players and fans alike to watch the triple crown decider between England and Wales in the clubhouse afterwards.
Changes in the South line up were aplenty with Aaron Langan making his first start for the 1st XV, Rod McNaughton, Stu Bale, James Stapleford and Keiran Collins all returning to the action. Ex Samoan seven’s international Paul Chan Tung featured on the bench along with Jack Hague and Mark Bayley.

Hereford started the brighter and took the game to South, opening the scoring with a straightforward penalty goal by centre Ritchie Rees. South were slow into their stride, but after a number of handling errors, responded in style with a Mike March try after a dynamic rolling maul. Mark Lord‘s conversion was blown wide.
From then on it was all South as a rejuvenated Matt Fisher, playing in the centre, tormented Hereford with a series of explosive runs to set up two tries
for the supporting Aaron Langan. Lord converting the latter.
Hereford got a try back via full back Keiran Hallam, converted by Rees.
South responded again with more explosive running from Mitch Culpin aided by a subtle dummy and Keiran Collins resulting in the bonus point being taken. Lord converted both to take the half time score to 31-10 in South’s favour and the game effectively won.

After the break Hereford’s resistance fell apart and South ran in another seven tries in a clinical exhibition of power and pace from forwards and backs alike. Another try from Langan, three from the powerful Chris Bale (seems to run in the family as Dad Pete scored a hat trick in the Vets County Cup final victory against Hinckley) while Kris McFedries, Connor Smith and Paul Chan Tung also got in on the act. Lord converted all of the second half scores for an impressive 10 from 12 strike rate.
Matt Fisher had an impressive game until bothered by his troublesome hamstring being replaced by Chan Tung who went to scrum half while McFedries went to full back and everybody moved in one position. Jack Hague replaced Stu Bale who also had a good game while Mark Bayley replaced captain Luke Coltman with McNaughton going to hooker.

While not to getting carried away with the victory, South had the desire to demonstrate their superiority over a side that look destined for relegation. To run in a high number of tries and keep the foot on the pedal for the whole 80 minutes is to be applauded especially with captain Coltman’s rustic encouragement throughout. This clinical approach from South has been missing in a number of games this season resulting in the loss of the second half on more than one occasion – long may the positive approach continue especially against stronger opposition.

Team: Culpin, Collins, Fisher (Chan Tung), Keeling, Smith, Lord, McFedries, Bale C, March, Langan, Bale S (Hague), Badham, McNaughton, Coltman (Bayley), Stapleford.

Man of the Match : Aaron Langan.

Footnote: The Rugby Paper this morning continued to misrepresent the players. They failed to mention Connor Smith for his try (even though without his contribution the total of tries didn’t add up) and mis-spelt Brian Marsh after his opening try.
I deny all responsibility!