Birmingham Moseley 26 v 40 1st XV, Sat 6th Apr 2019

Firstly your reporter must start by stating that he can’t for the life of him understand why a team as talented as Birmingham Moseley are in a relegation dog fight. They caused the A’s defence all sorts of problems and scored four well deserved tries against our much vaunted defence in a fire cracker of a game.

A’s started well with a Lutui try after a stock catch and drive on the seven metre line and converted by Pritchard to lead seven nil after six minutes.

Amp’s controlled large parts of the half from here with centre Sam Hanks, strong and elusive all day, scoring a try after a good break. He eluded the defence to score under the posts and the points were duly converted by Pritchard to lead 7 v 14 after twelve minutes.

Ciaran Whyte then fielded a downfield kick and broke the line to find Williams in support, who took a tackle but got the offload away and former Moseley player Joe Bercis scored under the posts, again converted by Pritchard to take a 7 v 21 lead at the half time whistle.

Whatever the Ampthill coaching staff said at half time appeared to have been ignored, and despite having the wind at there backs the A’s decided to start playing rugby in there own red zone and conceded two try’s on 46 and 56 mins to bring Birmingham Moseley back to within 2 points at 19 v 21.

A’s started to introduce the subs then and with a scrum on the Birmingham Moseley five metre line, scrum half McKirdy drifted wide and opened a hole for Bercis to bag his second try under the posts.  Pritchard again added the extras and the A’s travelling fans began to breathe a little easier. 19 v 28 after 63 mins.

Amps were now camped in Birmingham Moseley territory and after multiple phases Carl Burgess on his return to the first team carried strongly to crash over the line with two defenders enjoying the ride on big Carls back. Pritchard missed his only conversion of the day but the A’s had responded well and now put some clean air between themselves and Moseley at 19 v 33 on 69 mins.

As has been a theme recently, the A’s took their foot off the gas and a poor exit led to Birmingham Moseley getting there fourth and bonus point try to bring back within a score at 26 v 33.

Ampthill composed themselves and responded again with the ball in the Birmingham Moseley red zone.  Karl Garside who has signed full professional forms at Northampton Saints next season, scored from a pick and go close to the posts and Pritchard again converted to make to game safe on 79 mins, 26 v 40.

There was still time for A’s to muck up another exit and invite Birmingham Moseley to batter their defence, but this time the second best defence in the division held out to secure crucial five point win on the road.

After the game, Director of Rugby Mark Lavery said

“Whilst not our best performance of the year it’s about getting the job done and a five point win on the road at Birmingham Moseley is no mean feet. We have lots to work on and another cup final next week with the visit of Sale FC to Dillingham Park for the first time.

These are heady days for the senior section of the club with both our first team and 1881s looking to create another piece of history.”