Dunlop 24 Alcester 20
Midlands Three West (South)
VALIANT Alcester collected a bonus point for their efforts as they were edged out on Saturday at Dunlop, who top the table with 15 points from three games.
Despite defeat, the Kings Coughton men can take plenty of positives from their efforts ahead of their return to league action at home to Ledbury on October 14. Prior to that, Alcester host Harborne in the Midlands Senior Vase second round on Saturday.
Alcester could not have asked for a better start to the game as they scored after just one minute. From the back of a scrum, Dan Marcus drew the defence before putting winger Alex Chiles in the clear to open the scoring.
Full back Frazer Jackson was unable to succeed with the conversion but minutes later made amends with a penalty kick to put Alcester 8-0 up.
Dunlop fought back as the first half went on – scoring two forwards tries – one as a result of a driving maul off a lineout and the other from a pushover from a 5m scrum.
However, Alcester went into the break with a 20-17 lead after further tries from Jackson and centre Jack Green.
As the rain came down heavier, it was clear Alcester needed to play a wide game in the second half to win the match but Dunlop tightened the game, starved Alcester of possession and scored the only try of a frustrating second half to win the match.
Alcester fly half Josh O’Connor suffered a painful leg strain when playing his best rugby of the season so far and scrum half Marcus was named man of the match for the second time this season.
ALCESTER 2nds were beaten 43-21 by AEI Rugby in their first league game of the season.
In similar fashion to the first team, Alcester 2nds had the best possible start to the game. Several kicks of the ball along the ground combined with the pace of full back Scott McGee meant the defender was beaten and McGee was able to scoop the ball and offload to Cian Allen to score. Glyn Smith converted.
AEI then made it look easy to find gaps in Alcester’s defence to score five first half tries, whilst Alcester only managed to add one more try before the break through Rupert Daffern to trail 33-14 at half time.
AEI added two more tries in the second half and kicked a successful penalty to secure victory and Alcester could only respond with one more try through Daffern.
Eighteen-year-old Josh Phillips was named man of the match for Alcester 2nds.
ALCESTER U9s had their first ever contact game on Sunday as were thrown in at the deep end with a tri-tournament, but they rose to the challenge to win all three games.
THE U10s also began their season with a tournament featuring two teams from Stratford and a side from Kings Norton, but they faced a tougher battle.
Alcester lost both games to the Stratford sides but responded well to defeat Kings Norton thanks to excellent long passes and good hands.
