PERTEMPS BEES 7

SEDGLEY PARK    27 

National League Division One 

THE Tigers went into this game with just three wins under their belts and having lost by one point when the Bees buzzed into Park Lane earlier in the season. However, on this occasion the result was never in doubt, it was always going to be a Sedgley win.

Having welcomed back Andy Vilk from his tour of duty with the England Sevens team in Dubai and South Africa, and with Sale Sharks’ Matt Riley remaining on loan to fill one of the wing berths, Sedgley headed to Sharmans Cross Road in bullish mood.

Led by the incomparable Tim Fourie, the Tigers took the lead as early as the seventh minute through a 48-metre Phil Jones penalty. With the forwards winning turnover ball regularly the visitors enjoyed plenty of possession and ran at the home side at every opportunity.

With Jonny Roddam reinstated at hooker, the lineouts began to click nicely, while in the scrums the Tigers began to dominate against reputedly the best front row in ND1.

However, with three minutes of the opening half remaining Vilk was yellow-carded for killing the ball and the Bees made the most of the man advantage, winning the lineout from the penalty kick before spinning the ball from left to right where impressive fullback Jon Goodridge joined the line to go over in the corner, goaled by Rod Petty.

But a second Jones penalty two minutes into time added on kept the gap to just one point as the half-time whistle sounded.

Within 10 minutes of the restart Jones was presented with three more kickable penalties but was uncharacteristically off-target on each occasion.

A month ago such a turn of events would have possibly seen the Tigers self-destruct, but these days they are made of sterner mental stuff and on 54 minutes Jones more than made up for his misses when he rounded off a well worked move to send the on-rushing Adam Newton on his way to the Bees’ posts with a wonderfully weighted and timed pass that left the home defence snatching at thin air. He then added the conversion to put the Tigers into a 7-13 lead.

Eight minutes later another piece of mercurial Jones magic saw him wrong-foot the Bees' defence with two outrageous sidesteps to create space for himself which had seconds earlier been filled with defenders. He then trotted to the posts before converting his own try to extend his side’s lead to 7-20.

The Bees began to apply more pressure and looked to be getting somewhere before Matt Riley timed his run to perfection before showing basketball-like handling skills to pluck the ball out of the air as he intercepted the Bee’s line before sprinting 75 metres to touch down between the home posts to give Jones the easiest of two pointers and the Tigers led 7-27. Game over.

Revenge for that earlier defeat by the Bees was well and truly gained, along with the first away win of the season and the first back-to-back wins since March.Four victories do not safety make; however, with a rediscovered confidence and a self-belief that has taken a while to develop, hindered by an injury list that would have seen most teams relegated by now, the Tigers are at last beginning to roar. To that confidence and self-belief they now must add consistency.

PERTEMPS BEES: Goodridge, Billig (Higgins 40), Knight, Davies, Nutthall, Petty, Spee, Dunning, Pearl (Miles 50), Sigley (Long 52), Davidson (Touhy 62), Cornwell, Miller (Qera 40), Matthews, Halavatau. Replacements not used: Lewis, Baxter. Tries: Goodridge (40). Conversions: Petty 1. 

SEDGLEY PARK: Vilk, Riley, Briers, Voortman, Craig, Jones, J. Albinson, Evans (Roberts 75), Roddam (Keys 79), Halsall (Du Plessis 72), Fourie, Norris, Newton, Ponton, Skurr. Replacements: Jope, Livesey, T. Albinson, Monsell. Tries: Newton (47), Jones (55) and Riley (69). Conversions: Jones 3. Penalties: Jones 2. Yellow card: Vilk (39).