Bateman BMW Premiership

Sedgley Park 2nd  58 pts  Liverpool St Helens 2nd  5 pts

Sedgley have become accustomed to scoring tries early in their games, and once again they obliged. Leyton Taylor turned over possession as LSH ran the kick-off out, the visitors were penalised, and Chris Leader scored from the subsequent line-out drive.

This helped settle a much changed SP side. With players required for the 1st XV, and others injured, Park brought in Andy Duckworth at prop, Chris Leader switched to number 8, with Lancashire Colts’ Luke Woolley in at flanker. Behind the scrum, Danny Harrison moved out to the wing, with Paul Urmston taking over at scrum-half, while Paul Morris made a welcome return to the centre.

After a relatively even ten minutes, during which time Dom Köhler extended Sedgley’s lead with a penalty and LSH missed a harder one at the other end, the tries began to come. Centres Sion O’Hare and Paul Morris each scored, Köhler added a conversion, and Park led 20-0.

LSH pulled a try back through the penalty, line-out, drive routine, but O’Hare’s strength again took him into the clear, Matt Smith in support, Luke Woolley on his outside for the try. This was converted, as was one created by Morris and scored by big Ollie Macauley.

LSH generally lacked pace throughout their team but the left winger was an exception, and he almost got away to score on the brink of half-time, when Sedgley led 34-5.

The visitors also began the second half well, but Sedgley’s ability to score long-range tries was evident as Leader’s pick up and break from a scrum was well supported by Woolley and others for O’Hare to score his second, and Paul Urmston’s clever switch to the narrow side brought a try for the deserving Matt Smith.

The next try was the best of the match, a sweeping 75-metre effort which started with full-back Phil Largan and ended with Dominic Köhler’s grubber-kick and chase. The final try also belonged to Köhler, and the two conversions brought a personal tally of 23 points for the Sedgley stand-off.

Good performances from everyone, with a special mention to hooker Paul Keys and his chief line-out target Andrew Clegg, two players who seem to lack the knack of getting onto the scoresheet, but who contribute strongly in the loose also.

It was odd that Henry Monsell, so prominent on the wing last week, scarcely got a touch of the ball this time, though Danny Harrison saw plenty of it.

Next Saturday the team travels to Caldy, a potentially tricky fixture. We have pulled a few points clear at the top of the table…but only because Manchester did not play. They seem to be our only realistic rivals for the title.