Woodrush 15 Coventry Welsh 8

THIS vital league win was actually more com-fortable than the scoreline suggests.

Apart from a consolation try for Coventry towards the end the result was rarely in doubt.

One of the main reasons for the Woodrush im-provement was the league debut of 20-year-old Num-ber eight Nigel Smith, re-turning to the club from Moseley.

His powerful runs for-ward were a key factor in Woodrush's control of this game.

Woodrush opened the scoring midway through the first half, flanker Ben Honey made a break from a five metre scrum but was stopped just short of the line.

Mark Duce was in close support and dived over under the posts, Jacko Maddocks converted.

Coventry Welsh nar-rowed the gap with a pen-alty on the stroke of half-time but Maddocks can-celled this out early in the second half.

Woodrush piled on the pressure and winger Edu-ardo Lerna made a great break from the 22, cutting inside the defence.

His touch down was judged to have been spilled forward even though the tackle which caused it was on the high side, but he was rewarded minutes later when Woodrush struck against the head in the re-sulting scrum.

Duce picked up and fed Lerna to score in the cor-ner.

Woodrush were forced to make several changes due to injury in the last quarter of the match and, in disar-ray, let Welsh in for a try in the closing stages.

But, having been beaten heavily by Coventry Welsh in November, this was an impressive turnaround, and will hopefully bring about a better second half of the season.