Poor defeat for Upton (From Ledbury Reporter)

Poor defeat for Upton

12:50pm Saturday 10th March 2012 in Rugby

UPTON-upon-Severn came back down to earth with a bump after the previous week’s morale-boosting 29-10 victory over Kidderminster Carolians.

They produced an error-strewn performance against Newboldon- Avon in their latest Midlands Two West (South) match, losing 24-0 at home.

Five of their starting line-up were either injured or unavailable but Upton were able to call on veteran full-back John Hall and Matt Jeffreys.

However, the game was lost within 30 minutes as Upton handed the victory to their visitors by gifting them three tries.

After five minutes, Upton won their own line-out five metres from the line but the ball bounced off Charlie Abbey’s head and into the arms of the alert Newbold hooker, who burst through to score an unconverted try.

The second try was also from a line-out mess, this time on halfway, with scrum-half Matthew Cock in the sin-bin for a late tackle.

The throw went wrong after confusion with the call and Newbold again pounced with a 50-metre sprint to score another unconverted effort.

Newbold’s third try came from a penalty after Upton were penalised just after a line-out and, with only seven in the scrum, the visitors hit the blindside to score in the corner and add the extras.

The bonus-point effort came after a further Upton mistake from their own scrum 20 metres out.

Playing into the wind, Upton produced a resolute second-half performance to gain some pride.

Upton improved their line-out considerably but could not find a gap to gain a consolation score.