Wednesbury II 7, Pershore II 18pts

FOLLOWING a late pitch inspection Saturday's game was given the go ahead.

Pershore were pushed to get a team together and travelled with 12 players but their hosts were still in the festive spirit and had enough players to even up the sides.

In cold and wet conditions both sides tried to play attractive rugby and it was Pershore who broke the deadlock after ten minutes with recalled winger Matt Sprague going over in the corner following some slick handling in the backs.

Seymour, making his debut at full back, was unfortunate not to land the conversion.

Wednesbury responded well and, after a period of sustained pressure, were rewarded with a try under the posts, which was converted to leave the home team leading 7-5 at half-time.

Pershore started the second half strongly showing great commitment to the rucks and mauls. Unfortunately, this led to the loss of Steve Brown with a cut eye, followed minutes later by the inspirational Russell Humphries with a bad knee injury.

This fired the Pershore pack into action and the man of the match Steve Holmes broke from the back of the scrum, burst through several tackles before sprinting 60 yards to score the best try of the match. Seymour duly converted to give the visitors a 12-7 lead.

As the pitch got boggier the quality of play got worse. Following infringements at a set-piece Pershore were rewarded with a penalty which Seymour kicked.

A further penalty in the dying minutes made the score a comfortable win for Pershore in what was a very even encounter.