Rugby Union
OLs triumph at struggling Cheltenham

Cheltenham North 13 Old Laurentians 30

Midlands Two West (South)

OLD Laurentians warmed up for Saturday’s crunch home clash with Newbold by returning from bottom of the table Cheltenham North with victory on Saturday.

The two sides meet at Fenley Field with Newbold sitting two points and one place better off than OLs in second as the promotion race enters the home straight.

Cheltenham started the better of the two sides and opened up an 8-0 lead thanks to an unconverted try and a penalty inside the first ten minutes.

OLs slowly started to put things together but a combination of mistakes and resolute defending from Cheltenham kept the score the same until Jon Bean kicked a penalty to reduce the deficit to five points.

Gradually Cheltenham started to lose their discipline and they lost their centre to the sin bin whilst the visitors were forced to replace the injured Danny Murch, Jody Roderick took his place to make his first appearance for 17 years, and what an impact he had.

A swift OLs’ move saw Ian Wallis released and he fed Roderick at the perfect time to roll back the years and score in the corner. Bean added the extras from the touchline as the referee’s whistle blew for half time with OLs 10-8 ahead.

The visitors improved significantly in the second half and were in control for the majority of the period.

Matt Miller scored the first try after the restart when Roderick turned provider after the pack won a scrum against the head before the hosts lost another player to the bin, almost immediately after the first returned.

Bean missed the resultant penalty but made amends shortly afterwards when releasing Wallis with a good inside ball. He then fed Brightwell to score under the posts and Bean made no mistake with the extras to make it 22-8.

Simon Bayliss added his obligatory try in the right corner following a flowing move to secure the bonus point and Bean, who saw his conversion hit the post, completed the scoring shortly afterwards with a penalty.

Cheltenham managed a consolation try shortly before Roderick capped an impressive comeback by being shown the yellow card.

As well as the first team clash at 2.15pm on Saturday, OLs and Newbolds’ 2nds and 3rds will be doing battle, starting at 12.30pm.

THE 2nds eased to victory on Saturday, running out 70-12 winners against Earlsdon 2nds in Warwickshire One.

Tries from Ben Roberts, Troy Owen and Ben Shepherd saw OLs into a 15-5 half time lead before they took full control in the second half.

Roberts added two further tries to complete his hat-trick, as well as adding two conversions, whilst Owen notched his second and Ricky Reed, Jack Boulden, Paul Lewis and Mark Eagles also went over.

Pride of place goes to Sam Herman though who, in his last game for OLs before returning home to Minneapolis, scored two second half tries. The second came from the last play of the game when he ran in from halfway, evading several tackles on the way and demonstrating a real sense of theatre.

Denzil Evans added a couple of conversions as OLs consolidated their lead at the top of the table.