Moseley Oak 19-17 Evesham

[Phil]

As you will all know, Oak have made the NM Shield Cup Final to be played at Worcester RFC on Sunday 8th May.

They will be playing either Kidderminster or Evesham who play their semi-final this Saturday.

It's a 1pm ko and Oak & the MSA are organising a coach so please as usual email [e-mail] to book a seat or reply below, only £5 and departure time to be advised.

[dag]

Any idea who Oak are playing in the final on Sunday?

Come on Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooose

[cheshmos]

Evesham rfc beat Kidderminster 22 -20

[Phil]

Coach is now full!

[dag]

Hi Phil. Does that include my 3 seats?

Come on Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooose

[Phil]

Yes Phil.

[dag]

Great, smashing, super.

[Phil]

[Phil]

Our coach will leave at 10.30am

[kingsheathlad]

FT. Moseley Oak 19 Evesham 17.👏👏👏

[dag]

Moseley flair overcomes Evesham power
in a classic cup match

On a beautiful sunny day at Worcester Warriors ground Moseley, in front a large number of loyal, travelling Moseley supporters produced a stunning performance to lift the North Midlands RFU Shield Final.

Kicking off downhill Moseley were soon under relentless tides crushing pressure from a well drilled Evesham pack but, unlike a tsunami tide failed to breach a solid, seawall Moseley defence. It was clear that Evesham were relying on their huge and skilful forwards to lay the foundation for their play – which they did to a degree – but they failed to turn pressure into points at key moments.

Although Evesham were marginally better in the tight it was the line-out where Moseley initially struggled and although it was 10 minutes before Moseley won their first line-out thereafter they fared better. Evesham, by contrast played the same unusual style of catch and drive line-out play throughout the match in that they held their catcher up until the drive pack was formed before lowering him down. It proved quite effective as they dominated territory in the first half.

However, Moseley, better in the loose, had an abundance of pace and at around 20 minutes into the first half produced the proverbial rabbit out of the magician’s hat. Defending their line as if their very lives depended on it Moseley forced an Evesham knock-on inches from the line and within moments, from behind their own line, quick hands spun the ball out to their Exocet missile, Jamal Gask-Clarke on the right wing. Just like the Royal Navy in the Falklands, Evesham did not have the ‘kill switch’ to stop the missile and all that was needed was a subtle side-step, a well-judged chip over the top and, against the run of play, the converted try under the posts was in the bag. 7 - 0 to Moseley.
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Moseley, with their three-quarters starting to give Evesham lots of problems took the game to Evesham but on about 23 minutes they gifted Evesham a penalty catch and drive unconverted try. 7 - 5 to Moseley.
Moseley were not down, no sir and after another 5 minutes of Moseley magic a superb Moseley dummy cut through Evesham like a hot knife through butter for a converted try to make the score 14 - 5 to Moseley.

Moseley, gaining the ascendance stole an Evesham line-out but knocked on. Evesham snapped up the loose ball and drove back up-field. Shortly after they conceded a penalty on the half way line for over-rolling and Moseley kicked for the corner. With gaining confidence Moseley stunned Evesham with an audacious passage of play which released yet another Exocet missile into the Evesham corner for an unconverted try to increase the Moseley lead to 19 – 5. Less than 5 minutes later relentless Evesham forward pressure gifted them with a well worked catch and drive and an unconverted try to make the score 19 - 10 by half time.

It had been an exciting first half and it promised to be an even more exciting second half.

And so it was with ding-dong action from the kick off. Moseley with their interlinking forwards and three-quarters style challenged the Evesham, up front, in your face style at every opportunity. However, forced into some desperate defence the Moseley number 8 picked up a yellow card for pulling down a maul. That only served to galvanise the Moseley defence to even greater things as they kept the Evesham steam-roller at bay without conceding any score.

At around 30 minutes into the second half Evesham finally cracked the stout Moseley defence and with a forward loop off the back of a penalty catch and drive scored a converted try near the posts to close the gap to 19 - 17. Supporters were now deep into nail biting mode as both sides went hammer and tongs. Something had to give and, fortunately for Moseley, it was the Evesham discipline. Hand bags at one stage gifted Moseley a penalty to the corner but they were held out Evesham, in reply made a couple of good breaks one down to the half way line which nearly breached the Moseley cover defence.

With score delicately poised at 19-17 if their favour Moseley, having had the better of the loose play for most of the game continued to take the game to Evesham and with some determined pick and drive harassing pinned Evesham back into their own 25 for the last, long minutes or so. Moseley even thought they had a clean break fourth try at the death but the referee thought otherwise and blew for time instead.

It had been a pulsating match worthy of any cup final and as both teams meet each other in the same league next season there is the future promise of a couple of good scraps to look forwards to.
Come on Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooose