The home side had the chance of a victory, but while they did enough to win, they were not capable this time of sealing off victory against opponents who simply never gave up. The match was very exciting, with Bridgnorth opening the scoring through Charlie Ralph, after Ludlow collapsed an early scrum.
Bridgnorth’s back row were up against combative opponents, and the visitors were unlucky not to level the scores when former Bridgnorth player Will Green missed a simple penalty for hands in the ruck. Bridgnorth stuck at their task well, and went further ahead when Ludlow’s number eight went offside and Ralph notched up another three points.
Although Ludlow were ominously running every scrap of possession, Bridgnorth’s back row was straining a bit to keep up with the pace, even when they did make inroads into the opposition.
One super break by centre Stafford, who completely split the Ludlow defence, went begging only for Ludlow to then counter attack and their young half back Gareth Edwards to dive over to score gleefully in the corner.
Ralph soon increased the home side’s lead with another coolly taken penalty after another Ludlow transgression. But this was followed by a loss of concentration in midfield allowing Ludlow to score a good try from Matthew Phillips, which again was unconverted.
An injury to young Jimmy Gore didn’t help matters in the backs, and while John Watson was getting good lineout possession along with Jim McGettrick, there was a worrying lack of control in the vital areas up front.
Bridgnorth nearly stole the whole match when Ralph converted an easy penalty when good work by the team forced Ludlow to go over the ball in front of their posts, after great work from Tanners man of the match Ken Milkins.
Instead of sealing this win with cool heads, Bridgnorth somehow enabled Ludlow winger Danny Rawlings to score in the corner after a speculative kick and chase from the quick thinking Ludlow players, and some poor decision making from the home team.
Will Green then drop kicked the ball between the uprights, to take the points and send Ludlow back home with the spoils.
Bridgnorth showed some great flashes of play with Farrington playing another solid match at full back, and this result should shake the home side up to look at their game plan and fitness before their next game in the league at Old Halesonians tomorrow.
