Claverdon RFC

Claverdon’s 1st XV travelled away to Southam on Saturday in their second league fixture of the season. Having beaten Harborne in their first outing, Claverdon were seeking back-to-back wins against a Southam side who were well beaten the previous weekend against Barkers Butts. 

The Lions struck first through a penalty kick by fullback, Luke Sibley, not letting the strong winds affect his form. Southam bit back quickly though, with two tries in quick succession, with dominant forward ball around the breakdown. However, Claverdon, determined not to let their heads drop, regained possession and went on the attack. Hilton Garner-Jones, returning from a season-long injury, stepped two opposition players on the wing to dive over the line and claim Claverdon’s first try of the day. The half time score read 15-8 in favour of the home side. 

The second half can only be described as a rollercoaster of emotions. Claverdon came out firing. A scrum on the Southam 22-metre line allowed James Williams to feed a simple pass to Garner-Jones, who beat his man to score his second of the afternoon. Sibley added the two points via the conversion to level the scores at 15-15. The momentum was firmly with the visitors, with a solid scrum that could provide clean ball to the backs. Claverdon camped out in the Southam half for another 10 minutes, culminating in Luke Sibley diving over the line in the corner and converting a challenging kick to add another 7 points to the scoreboard. 

Strong carries from George Redwood and Kieran Haynes enabled Claverdon to continue asking questions of the Southam defence. Another spell for the Lions on the Southam 5-metre line eventually paid dividends with Luke Taylor bravely diving over bodies to touch the ball down. Another conversion from Sibley meant that Claverdon were 29-15 up. However, Southam were not deterred. Southam scored two tries in a similar fashion to the first half, in rapid succession, mounting huge pressure on Claverdon to defend their lead in the dying minutes. In the last play of the game, in true man of the match style, Southam’s back-rower, Jenson Cullen, ran in an 80-metre try, shrugging almost half of the Claverdon defence off. A dramatic end to the game, and total devastation for Claverdon, who could only accept two bonus points (losing bonus and try bonus) in the end. The final score read 34-29 to Southam. Claverdon now turn their attention to a home cup game against Rugby Lions on Saturday 20th September.