A windy and wet morning greeted the Moorfields travelling team at Claverdon. Although mercifully the game was to be played at the bottom of the challenging hillside a narrow and muddy pitch still had to be conquered which would not lend itself to the open running game Leamington favours.

Despite being 1 player short and having to use leamington power house Joe to shore up their squad Claverdon started the stronger unit and came forward with purpose gaining good momentum through direct running and aggressive rucking . The visitors built on their previous weeks strong defensive performance however to absorb the oncoming attacking tide with more hard work from the forward pack. Slowly regaining some level of control leamington were able to start to build some attacking momentum which culminated in a well worked try from fly half Tom Scott Brown who was able to find space after receiving a quickly recycled ball . The conversion was well struck by the trusty boot of scrum half Ben Leahey to give the visitors a 0-7 lead after what seemed a long first 11 minutes.

The rest of the 1st half was slowed by the muddy and cold conditions with a lot of handling errors and energy sapping mauling work in the centre of the field despite Leamington trying several times to break the deadlock by moving the ball wide. Cold fingers and heavy boots seemed to make every move more difficult to complete.

At half time Leamington were forced to regroup and reassess their game plan to look for a score to give them a points buffer but had also to support Claverdon with 2 more players due to injuries eliminating their bench. Several strong runs from the likes of Kofi , Rhys and Lewis started the second half however the visitors were frustrated after support players were unable to capitalise on the advantage. The positive play was rewarded after 13 minutes when a run from deep by centre Tom Betts picked up on a clever inside pass from Tom Scott Brown to break through the defence and with a well placed hand off secure the 2nd try of the morning under the posts.

The Claverdon unit bolstered by some strong leamington debutantes including Rhyno & Lucian Gould started a period of attacking play looking to chase the game and some spirited exchanges showed how strongly the home side wanted to protect their home record. Excellent defensive work from the leamington team frustrated their efforts however and showed real character plus evidence of the hard work on the training field , special note needs to be made of Ethan and Tom Betts both administering punishing tackles on anything that strayed near them.

With both teams and coaching staff tiring an excellent break from swift winger Johnny caused a premature celebration when an impressive virtual score was made on the Claverdon 5 metre line , the ball was quickly recycled however and passed through several pairs of determined hands before being collected from the back of a ruck and driven over for the 3rd and final score of the day by excellent Man of the Match back row Ethan.

Leamington finished up 0-19 winners and deserve congratulations to the whole team for a hard mornings work conducted with leamington and claverdon shirts on in difficult conditions against a determined sizeable opposition.