CLAVERDON RFC roared to a 31-10 win over Coventrians in Midlands 4 West (South), maintaining their place in fourth.
The hosts had the disadvantage of playing up the hill to begin with, but soon kicked their way into Coventrians territory and sent their forwards back into their own half, following good defending from Claverdon’s Chris Glover and Colin Marklew.
A penalty for Clav earned the first points of the afternoon, but Coventrians levelled minutes later after kicking deep into Claverdon territory and successfully converting a penalty of their own.
The remainder of the first-half was dominated by the hosts as they pushed to regain their lead.
Gaining ground inside Coventrians half, they were awarded a penalty out wide, and after kicking into the corner for a line out – Luke Rogers finished off the resulting move for a 10-3 lead at the break.
After Harvey Skinner was sin-binned for ten minutes just before the interval, Claverdon had to emerge in the second-half playing it safe to maintain their lead.
What resulted next was a fantastic move from deep, leading to captain James Barton picking up from the ruck and bursting past three defenders to crash over the line, extending the lead to 17-3.
The momentum that was gained allowed for a third Claverdon try.
A scrum wide-out led to Tom Johnson and James Williams working the ball to Sam Turrell to run unopposed between the posts, the lead at 24-3 began to look unassailable.
Coventrians sent the ball deep with the restart, James Riley collected deep and drove forward in-field to put Claverdon in another promising position straight away.
Good carries from Matt Warren and Josh Smallwood then allowed James Gibney to go over the try line, gaining a bonus point for Claverdon in the process, and taking the scoring to 31-3.
Coventrians and Claverdon’s Nick Green both had ten minutes out after an altercation, which the visitors were the biggest beneficiaries of.
Alex Holden’s dismissal for ten minutes meant Claverdon were down to 13 men, and with Coventrians opting for a scrum, were able to burst through the field and over the line with the extra space available to them.
The score stood at 31-10, but Coventrians kept pressurising the Claverdon 22 in the final minutes, especially when James Kirby was dismissed to leave the hosts with 12 men on the pitch.
Fortunately, with time running out and with Barton and Riley shutting the door on last-gasp moves towards the try line, Claverdon saw out the emphatic win.
The club have a weekend off before visiting Greyhound on Saturday March 23, who sit ninth in the table, but are joint second-bottom on points with Coventrians.
