RFU National League Two

Sedgley Park...47pts

Newbury...5pts

THE result was never in doubt after the opening ten minutes.

Playing up the slope, Sedgley had already scored two tries and had exposed the visitors' weak defence and lack of pace.

Scrum-half Dave McCormack made the first, breaking clear from a quickly taken tap-penalty and feeding centre Rob Moon who scored.

McCormack again, from a scrum just outside his own 22, broke away up the narrow side. The finish was impressively clinical as flanker Kern Yates supported on the inside and full-back Chris Glynn, on the outside, scored the try.

Arno de Jager was unable to convert either of them, but added a penalty to increase Sedgley's lead to 13-0.

Still inside 20 minutes, lock Paul Arnold strode through the middle, Glynn supported, and Ross Bullough beat the final defender with a delightful little shimmy before trotting round to touch down between the posts. De Jager converted.

So far, Newbury had shown few of the qualities one would expect from a side who had previously beaten Esher, Stourbridge and Nottingham, but now they scored a good try, quick hands creating the space for wing Joe Czerpak to score in the corner.

Thus encouraged, Newbury's big pack turned up the heat and Sedgley were subjected to ten minutes pressure, losing prop Matt Alcock to the sin-bin as the penalties mounted and the referee lost patience.

This period was survived and, breaking out, Sedgley scored twice more before half-time.

A de Jager penalty was followed by another try for Bullough who gathered his own chip ahead with enough momentum to reach the line, and half-time came with Sedgley holding a decisive 28pts-5 lead with the advantage of the slope to come.

The second half turned out to be something of a disappointment. Play became niggly, occasionally worse than that, and rugby was at a premium.

Fittingly, the first try came from an error as the Newbury backs mishandled and Carlos Hassan kicked the loose ball on to win a five metre scrum, from the base of which McCormack scored.

De Jager converted, but then found himself in the sin bin after a late challenge on his opposite number.

Newbury flanker Dave Thorpe soon followed him as the referee struggled for control but, in the end, Sedgley let their rugby do the talking with two more tries.

The pack got the first, a fierce drive being touched down by replacement hooker Leon Treco.

Then, from another five-metre scrum, replacement centre Jon Scales did what he does best, bursting through at pace to score at the posts.

De Jager's conversion rounded off a satisfactory Sedgley performance.

SEDGLEY PARK: Glynn; Bullough, Moon, Hassan, Morris; de Jager, McCormack; Alcock, Keys, Thomas; Arnold, Stockdale; Grainey, Yates, Fourie. Replacements: Scales, Roberts, Treco, Taylor.