Shipston RFC began their 2024/25 league campaign with a convincing bonus point victory at Mayo Road, after they defeated a very competitive Hereford RFC side 26-12 on the opening day of the season.

Before the action got underway there was a very well observed minutes silence held jointly with the Bucks and Pinley RFC to honour the tragic passing of one of the Pinley players in the week and also for the Shipston boys to pay their respects to Connagh Aspinall, a fantastic supporter of the club over the past 4 seasons, who we very sadly lost at the beginning of August.

Both sides put on a fantastic display in their memory, with the Bucks running out 38-5 victors against Pinley and the Rams dominating most of the proceedings against Hereford RFC.

The match started brightly for the Rams as they settled into their rugby well in the face of a strong and well drilled looking Hereford defence. However it was the visitors that troubled the scoreboard first, executing a well worked move from a lineout to create numbers out wide and score in the corner. The successful conversion gave them a 0-7 lead after only 7 minutes of the game gone.

Shipston bounced back superbly from the resulting re-start, putting lots of pressure on the chase and turning the ball over. Charlie Hutchings, who had an excellent first half playing at 7, pounced on the loose ball and made an excellent run in to the heart of the Hereford twenty-two. After a couple of swift phases, the ball found it's way towards the left and fly-half Rob James executed a delicate chip through for Tobi Faulkner to race onto and touch down for the Rams' first score of the afternoon. A difficult conversion out wide was just missed and that meant the score was 5-7 after just 10 minutes of play.

The remainder of the first half saw some excellent passages of play for the hosts but they were just unable to make that last pass stick to get under the posts for another try. A couple of great breaks from bustling centre, Ben Harris and some sharp feet out wide from Chris Cummy and Matt Daniells created opportunities that were very nearly taken, but the score remained 5-7.

With time running out in the half Shipston did manage to get that second try that their pressure deserved, following an attacking scrum in the centre of the pitch. A well executed move got the Rams up the right hand side of the pitch and heading towards the twenty-two metre line and following a good, hard carry up the centre of the pitch, the ball was spun to the left, where Harry Clark latched onto the end of a Dan Taylor pass and beat the covering full back to go over and jog round under the posts. A successful Tate O'Donovan kick at goal meant that the two sides entered half time with he score at 12-7.

After a quick drink and debrief, the boys were back out onto the field and they started the second period very brightly. After a quick turnover at the breakdown, not long after the restart, Hereford were penalised for an infringement at the breakdown and scrum half Connor Hutchison tapped quickly to get the Rams on the front foot. Some excellent support play from Matt Daniells on the shoulder and a quick pass allowed Harry Clark to burst through and score his second and Shipston's third try of the match. Another O'Donovan conversion pushed the Rams' lead out to 19-7 with barely 2 minutes of the second half underway.

Another 10 minutes on the clock and it was 26-7 to Shipston and the fourth, bonus point securing try on the board, thanks again to Clark. A positive attack and a number of phases narrowed the Hereford defence and when the ball was shipped out wide through the hands of Rob James and Matt Daniells, Clark popped up on the shoulder to take an offload and power his way over for his hat trick score.

The Rams were looking very comfortable and playing some excellent rugby, but Hereford continued to push hard and it made for an excellent contest. The likes of Bertie Taylor, Fergus Smithers and Alex Merrick were doing some really hard graft up front and getting Shipston on the front foot and the backline were largely composed in attack and solid in defence throughout.

A couple of late yellow cards for the Rams made the task harder than it should've been. Firstly Ben Harris was sent to the naughty step in the 61st minute for a high tackle on the Hereford winger and then Connor Hutchison received his marching orders for being offside at the breakdown.

Much to Hereford's credit they continued to push hard towards the end of the game and they finally made the extra man count, scoring in the right hand corner after creating an overlap from an attacking scrum, moving the score to 26-12.

That was how the game finished, as with only 30 seconds remaining on the clock from the restart, Shipston defended well and tackled the Hereford back row into touch to bring to an end a great game of attacking rugby.

There were a number of standout performances for the Rams, with James Pither having an excellent game at loosehead prop and obviously Harry Clark with his hat trick of well taken scores. However the MOTM this week was awarded to Bertie Taylor, who was imperious at number 8 all afternoon - carrying hard and smashing people in defence. He was awarded his MOTM by match day sponsor Simon Healey Paddocks & Grounds, a huge thank you to them for their support.

The Rams are on the road next Saturday (14th) when they travel to newly promoted Ledbury RFC - kick off at 3pm.