Saturday saw Bees travel to third place Pershore RFC who hadn’t lost at home all season and were looking to carry on their push up the table.
Bees put together a strong team and with Josh Reader back in the starting line up gave the team a real boost. Jake Lowe and Jonnie Mills starred throughout the game providing quality at scrum half and number 8, which allowed the team to build a solid platform both in attack and defence.

Straight from the kick off Bees were attacking and Pershore were on the back foot on their line. Pershore, as they did for most of the match, tried to run the ball from deep but Bees mercurial winger, PJ Hatch showed that he is more than a pace mans as he ripped the ball from the Pershore winger and from some 30 yards out sprinted to score under the posts to give Bees the perfect start. Lewis Edwards added the extras before some Pershore fans had left the bar leaving them shocked at the fast start from Bees.

Bees continued to press with an intensity that was just too much for Pershore who made a number of handling errors, forced in many occasions from the speed out of defence led by the impressive Reader who looked very sharp.

This proved too much for Pershore, and Jonnie Mills powerfully ran in the second try, leaving a wake of defenders on the floor from the 22, Lewis Edwards again converted, and was having a good day with the boot. Bees were not faultless. A dropped ball at the end of a promising attack by Bees just inside Pershore half saw some smart counter attacking by the hosts who ran in a well worked try which was converted to see the score 7-14 and which got the Pershore fans on their feet.

From the restart, Bees were immediately on the front foot with strong running from Josh Reader, and on the stroke of half time after another wave of attacking moves that Pershore had no answer to, Bees won an attacking line out 10m out. After clean ball was one, Bees set up a driving maul, a newly acquired attacking option, off which Mills peeled off and galloped away down the short side to score his second try the day in the corner.

Half Time Pershore 7 Bees 19.

Head Coach, James Panter, asked for more of the same in the second half and this was exactly what Bees delivered, led by a very powerful display from the scrum half, Jake Lowe who on another day would have been nominated as Man of the Match. The intensity he brought to the game was rewarded when after another period of attacking rugby, bees were awarded a penalty on the 5 m line in front of the post. His awareness spotted the space out to the left and his quick tap led to Ryan Sleaford crossing the line to give the Bees a 7-24 lead.

Bees' intensity saw Pershore struggle to relieve pressure that continued to be applied in the home sides 22m. Bees dominant scrum won a ball and the backs attacked the midfield. The move looked to be over when seemingly out-rucked the Bees via an illegal side entry but in trying to run the ball out of their 22, the Pershore centre spilled the ball forward at the feet of the ever-alert Edwards, who kicked and chased the ball to score a try in the corner. That summed up exactly what Bees brought to the game - non stop rugby from the 1st minute.

Pershore never recovered from the try in the first minute, and Lewis Edwards rapped up the bonus point win with a penalty on the stroke of full time final score 7-32. For the 2nd week in a row Bees did not concede in the 2nd half something the coaching staff ask the players to focus on. An excellent performance from minute one saw the large travelling support rewarded.

Full Time Pershore 7 Bees 32

MAN OF THE MATCH - Jonny Mills (sponsored by 4 SEASONS GROUNDS AND LANDSCAPING) - two tries and immense presence carrying the ball.

Birmingham & Solihull's next game sees unbeaten Rugby Welsh travel to Portway - the clash of the ‘Top Two’ - Date 26th November - KO 2.15PM

(Photo courtesy of Andy Harper via Pershore Facebook)