THE battle to pull away from the bottom of the table takes another knock, as the Tigers squander a 5-22 half-time lead to emerge on the wrong end of a 32-25 scoreline with just one point when all five were there for the taking

MOSELEY                     32

SEDGLEY PARK           25

National League Division One  

THE phrase, “a game of two halves” tends to be overused in sport, however, on this occasion it perfectly describes what happened on Billesley Common, Birmingham, on Saturday.

Leading 5-22 at half-time, Sedgley were in command, having harnessed the strong wind to their advantage and played aggressive, focused, controlled rugby for over 40 minutes, despite the loss of the immense Jaco Swart thriough injury.

Indeed, the home side only awoke from their collective stupor 10 minutes before the half-time whistle. But that try prior to the break and two more within 10 minutes of the restart, together with the wind and sun at their backs, turned the game and once more the Tigers lost a contest they should have won.

Chris Wilkinson replaced groin-victim Arno De Jager at fullback, while Sale Sharks’ loan signings Mark Jones and Ben Lloyd were preferred to Jonny Roddam and Ed Norris respectively, and the changes seemed to work. With Phil Jones’ using the wind to find distance with his kicks for field position, possession won at both set-pieces and turnover was used well, with rolling mauls pushing the Moseley defence backwards at every turn.

Early on Jones made a great break, running diagonally through the merest hint of a gap in the Mosley backline, serving notice of his intention to exploit any and every opportunity. He then took his second chance well to set-up the Tigers’ opening try.

The Sedgley pack stole lineout ball on the Moseley 22 and Jones dummied before wrong-footing two defenders and zipped through the gap to fire a pass along the line to Andy Craig who went over by the right flag. Jones then followed it up with a superb touchline conversion to give the Tigers a 0-7 lead. Three minutes later Sedgley were awarded a penalty five metres inside their own half, and Jones calmly lined the ball up before kicking straight and true to make it 0-10.

The first set-back of the afternoon occurred on 14 minutes when Jaco Swart turned awkwardly driving the ball into contact and immediately went down in extreme pain. He was carried off and taken to Selley Oak hospital where it was discovered he had not only dislocated his ankle but had broken the tibia also. He was replaced by Ed Norris.

Shrugging off the loss, Sedgley simply continued to boss matters, with Moseley only showing brief glimpses at this point of their undoubted attacking ability. A second long distance penalty kick attempt by Jones, this time from about 48 metres went just wide.

Determined Sedgley defence continued to thwart Moseley and Sedgley immediately made the most of the man advantage after Moseley centre Paul Cox was yellow-carded for repeatedly not rolling away from the tackle.Ten metres from the home line Sedgley elected to take the scrum and the ball was won and spun first one way then the other before Jones himself went over in the right corner to make it 0-15 to the visitors after 28 minutes.

Three minutes later in got even better. From a scrum on the Moseley 10-metre line the ball was fed to Craig, he ran the angle, cutting through the Mosley cover before offloading to Chris Wilkinson racing up in support and a beautifully timed inside pass sent ‘Wilki’ on his way to the home posts to give Jones the simplest of two pointers.

At 0-22 down and with just nine minutes of the half left on the clock, Moseley finally roused themselves, and when Mark Jones was sin-binned it was their turn to make the extra man count. A Moseley up-‘n’-under saw chaser Daren O’Leary take the catch and hug the right touchline in his sprint to the Tigers’ try line to make it 5-22 at the turnaround.

To say Moseley emerged for the second half a different team would be an understatement. Within two minutes of the restart they made the most of the Tigers’ third quarter malaise, aided by poor tackling to swing the ball to and fro, finally finding a huge hole in the Sedgley defence for Number 8 James Rodwell to barge his way over, converted by Ollie Thomas, who with the wind at his back began to dictate matters with his kicking.

They were handed the man advantage again on 47 minutes when Andy Craig was sin-binned for a late tackle and Thomas kicked the resulting penalty.Gaining possession from the re-start Moseley fired the ball along the backline and centre Carl Colvin went over in the right corner, with Thomas’ conversion going over via the left-hand post to make it all 22-22 with 49 minutes gone.

Sedgley were just beginning to regroup when at a 58^th minute lineout one of the Moseley jumpers was taken out in-flight and referee Tim Beddows adjudged Norris to be the guilty party and immediately red-carded him, reducing the Tigers to 14 men for the duration of the game.

Yet despite this setback the Sedgley forwards appeared to step up a gear with one rolling maul driving the Moseley pack back 40 metres! The pressure began to increase on the home side, but the Tigers let themselves down time and again with poor ball retention both in the loose and at the lineout.

However, another sustained forward drive was rewarded with a penalty on the home 22 and Jones stepped up to put the Tigers back into the lead with just six minutes left on the clock.But it was not to be.

A minute from time Sedgley coughed the ball up five metres from their own line and Moseley sent it right, with Cox going over by the corner flag although he appeared to drop it as he crossed the line.

With the four-try bonus point wrapped up the home side then tried to deprive the Tigers of a losing bonus point, but Thomas’ successful drop goal five minutes into time added on was the last action of the game.  

MOSELEY: Binns, Winter, O’Leary (Holder 66), Cox, Colvin (Aston 53), Thomas, Knight (Hunter 68 – Blood), Coles, caves (Hall 63), Buxton (Black 66), Arnold, Stott (Skelding 63), Mason, McIntosh, Rodwell. Replacement not used: Evans.Tries: O’Leary (37), Rodwell (42), Colvin (49), Cox (76).Conversions: Thomas (3)Penalties: ThomasDrop Goals: Thomas  

SEDGLEY PARK: Wilkinson, Hall (Roko 50 – Blood), Briers, Craig, Voortman, P. Jones, J. Albinson (Leck 66), Evans (Gazzola 54), M. Jones (Roddam 54), Halsall (Du Plessis 66), Swart (Norris 11), Lloyd, Newton (Jope 66), Ponton, Skurr.Tries: Craig (7), Jones (21), and Wilkinson (31).Conversions: Jones (2).Penalties: (2).Yellow cards: M. Jones (27), Craig (47).Red card; Norris (56)