Evesham 25pts, Old Halesonians 12

EVESHAM continued their superb winning start to the season, with a comprehensive league victory against their old rivals.

After being beaten twice by OH last season, Evesham knew they had to play excellent rugby to get the result. And that's exactly what they did.

From the off Evesham attacked at the heart of the Halesowen midfield through strong runs from Chris Maritza, Chris Evis and Lloyd Giles. And, within five minutes, they had opened their try account.

From a ruck created from a good forward driving play, fly-half Tom Archer ran a beautiful line to put outside centre Jamie Cameron through a wide hole to sprint in from 25 yards. Archer added the conversion.

Almost immediately, opposition woke up and sustained pressure finally brought an equalising score.

Evesham's response was immediate. Dave Scott, Luke Matthews and Tim Webb were having tremendous games and taking on much bigger opponents.

The second try came from a great passage of play from the pack when, after a series of drives and rucks, the ball was fed to Evis, who put in a beautiful double miss pass for veteran winger Paul Turpitt to go in at the corner.

Archer's penalty gave his side a 15-7 half-time cushion - a lead that was increased to 11 points when the kicker slotted over another penalty.

Evesham's defence was awesome and the whole side had to pull off some outstanding tackles to keep out OHs.

However, halfway through the half, they got their reward and crossed for an unconverted try.

This spurred Evesham back into life and went for the decisive try to seal victory. A loose pass was snapped up by Archer who ran in unopposed.

The conversion completed a fine display and the scorer took his personal points tally to 15.

Evesham's next league game is at Southam on Saturday, October 23.