INJURY-HIT Old Halesonians lost 27-14 at Whitchurch last Saturday.

With five first team players missing, Old Hales travelled to Whitchurch where the game started at a very fast pace. Within minutes old Hales were caught off side in their own 22 and Whitchurch kicked the penalty to go 3-0 up. Straight from the kick off Old Halesonians were put under a lot of pressure by the home side who then scored their first try, converted by the fly half to make the score 10-0.

Old Hales struggled to find any structure or patterns of play to make their mark on the game. Whitchurch continued to attack and scored an unconverted try to make the score 15-0.

Finally old Hales started to play better rugby but couldn’t break down the Whitchurch defence and in the final minutes of the first half Whitchurch scored two tries in succession , one of which they converted to make the half time score 27-0.

The second half kicked off at an equally fast pace but this time it was old Hales in control although they could not break down the defence; the pendulum swung and Whitchurch took control of the attack but some great defence from old Hales prevented the home side from breaking through.

Finally pressure from old Halesonians paid off with Whitchurch committing penalty after penalty. Old Hales kicked into the corner and from the resulting line out Aron Middleton went over to score and Luke Fenton converted to make the score 27-7.

The visiting side continued playing attacking rugby and from just inside their own half, made a break resulting in scrum half Jamie Keen scoring, again converted by Luke Fenton. Too little too late meant Old Hales didn’t gain a bonus point.

Head Coach James Angove said “I was very pleased with the second and third team players making their debut for the first team squad, both for performance and attitude - their heads did not go down and on paper we won the second half.

"Our next league game is at home against Droitwich on November 9 at 2.15pm and our aim is to play a consistent 80 minutes."