RUGBY UNION: A THREE week break did Harbury the world of good after they returned from the festive break by comfortably dispatching Kings Norton 26-0 in the Midland 4 West (South) division.
It took ten minutes for the visitors to open the scoring when quick passing in the backs gave Mark Anderson the space he needed to go round the home full back and touch down beneath the posts, with Dave Rooney scoring the conversion.
Kings Norton responded well and were only kept at bay by a solid Harbury defence and once the ball was moved wide by Harbury their backs showed pace and guile to break the home cover.
A midfield break by centre Daz Kittendorf was well supported by Steve Alford who used his pace to cut through a broken field and add a second try with Rooney again converting.
Harbury’s third try was rather special as Rooney cleverly delayed his pass but took the subsequent hit and with Kittendorf taking the gap expertly he laid the ball off to Alford to add his second try which again Rooney converted for a 21-0 half- time lead.
The second half was very much a case of missed opportunities as typified by an excellent break by flanker and skipper Luke Dunne, who used his pace in the 22 and offloaded to a supporting runner metres from the line but the ball was dropped.
Another backs move took Anderson down the touch and though he touched down his foot was in touch following excellent cover defence from Kings Norton.
The forward battle followed a series of rolling mauls from Harbury, but time and again white line fever dominated the mindset of the forwards and at least two scores went begging.
One of the problems appeared to be an unwillingness to move the ball out wide and when this was eventually appreciated Steve Alford added to his tally with a well deserved hat-trick, which proved to be the final score of the match.
