It was sixth vs fifth going into this encounter, the home side, Birmingham, sitting just two points behind Worcester albeit with a couple of games in hand. But it was Brum who overtook Worcester in the league following this one, after a stunning second half performance gave them a 31 point win.
The first half was a relatively scrappy affair, with Birmingham’s forwards dominating both open- play and set-plays, with their scrums looking particularly strong. But it was the Lions that struck first with winger Josh Amadi breaking away for the first try, and outside- centre Nick Brook picking up Brum’s second try of the game after a few lovely off-loads from Osian Davies and Richard Galloway. And following a single conversion from fly-half Craig Bonnar, Birmingham went into the first half break at 12-5.
A solid, workman- like performance had handed Brum a seven point lead, but it was in the second half they really got going and showed off their skills. Bonnar got things started with a wonderful break- away try which saw him run from the half way line, before slotting home another conversion to give Birmingham a 19-5 lead. The only blemish on the second half performance did come shortly after this though as Worcester struck back immediately to make the score 19-12. But after that fatigue began to creep into their game and Birmingham were allowed to run riot.
Osian Davies got things started in what was his 50th game for the 1st XI, scoring a nice try following a sidestep on his opposite number, before Amadi scored his second try of the game. And scrum- half Will Isaacs scored quickly afterwards to take the game away from Worcester. At this point the score stood at 36-12 to the Lions, an unassailable lead with just a few minutes remaining. But Richard Galloway put the cherry on top of the icing on top of the cake by scoring a magnificent try running from around 40 yards- beating several tackles and eventually diving over under the posts.
And with Bonnar scoring yet another conversion, the score went to 43 – 12, and Birmingham wrapped up a fantastic victory over their close rivals Worcester.
Matt Bullin.
