OLD Hales bounced back from a lacklustre performance a week ago to inflict a heavy defeat on promotion rivals Tamworth.

Some early pressure from the home forwards was rewarded when wing Tim Curtis finished well in the corner, stepping his way past two defenders before touching down. The conversion was missed by Seb Rose.

Both sides traded penalties for encroaching offside, with Hales' coming from centre Ben Smith, who took over kicking duties due to Rose suffering from a hamstring strain. Hales pack dominated the line-out from this point on and took a number of scrums against the head, mounting pressure on the visitors. It wasn't long before a second breakthrough came; with Alan Hubbleday commanding things at the back of a driven maul Hales bulldozed over the Tamworth line from 10 yards out. Smith duly added the conversion to make the score 14-3 after 24 minutes. Smith and his opposite number both added penalties before the break; Smith narrowly missing a third penalty attempt on the stroke of halftime. At 17-6 it was clear that Hales would only lose the game if their discipline let them down as it had the week before. It was not to be, however, and the second half saw them add 21 unanswered points. With the wind in their favour, Hales were able to punish the visitor's own poor discipline with some strong touchline kicking from Mark Wakefield. Indeed, two quick-fire scores come from penalties kicked into the Tamworth 22 and caught and driven from the ensuing lineouts. Both of these scores were again orchestrated by Hubbleday, who deserved his hat-trick. Smith added two points by converting the second of these scores and a penalty shortly after the break.

The final 10 minutes saw some strong running rugby from Hales, which kept the Tamworth defence guessing. This paid dividends when the ball was moved quickly along the three-quarters to captain Rose, who glided over to score, rounding off an excellent victory for the league leaders.

This Saturday, Hales will be hoping to benefit from their excellent support when they travel to Sutton Coldfield in a tantalising encounter in the EDF Senior Vase.

Victory would put them into the quater-finals and only two games away from a trip to Twickenham.

10:53am Thursday 31st January 2008

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