Walsall played Tamworth on a dry sunny day. With a few players injured Walsall took the field trying to go one better than last season.

The semi final kicked off with a good high kick off were Walsall chased hard, collected by a home player and metres were made rapidly only to spill the ball after a quick interchange deep into Tamworths 22. Tamworth defended their scrum and made quality ground through quick hands through their forwards and backs. It took 2 mins for the visitors to crash over on the right hand side. 0-5

Walsall were under pressure for the next 18 mins , some was good attacking play by Tamworth but most of the pressure was forced on the home team by their own inability to communicate and work for each other. During that time Walsall players walking to the next phase, unacceptable especially at this age. Tamworth punished them again try ! 0-12

Walsall had a period of 5 mins were they had a large share of the ball and made massive ground through passages of play testing Tamworths defence. Walsall scored through hard work and determination resulting in a pass slid out to Raighne Hutchinson who used great balance and awareness to weave through and score at pace under the posts. Conversion by Tom Hale 7-12

In the next 18 mins there was the display of the self destruction Walsall again, conceded 3 more tries too easily. 7-27 Tamworth.
Then followed a late rally towards half time were Walsall woke up and moved the ball through phase after phase. Pushing the ball through 4 sets of hands, the final pair of hands being Raighne. He powered through the defence using power and balance to score again around the back of the visitors defence. Conversion by Tom Hale 14-27 Tamworth

Half Time 14-27

Walsall then made a few changes at half time. Tamworth kick off and squeezed the home defence to force an error deep into the 22. Three Walsall players went to tackle the same player, all three being hindered by each other. Using fast ball through hands they crashed over early after the re-start. 14- 34

Walsall then pushed and pressured Tamworth after the re-start and found a little momentum, pushing the ball wide to the left for Raighne
to run in from 25 metres around the defence in the right corner. 19-34

Tamworth had the last say, only fair as they were the better team on the day. The final score went to Tamworth 19-41

Final score Staffordshire Plate semi final Walsall 19 Tamworth 41.

Well played Tamworth, it was an entertaining game. We wish you luck in the final.

Rob's notes

Collectively as a team there wasn't any real commitment to this cup tie, saying that there were certain individuals who always put a "shift in". To those, I as coach thank them for their hard work. We have to realise its a team game and you cannot rely on the usual suspects to grind out results for the team. Yes the team has had two good seasons together but you cannot live off old victories. Move with the times or get left behind.

Put this below par performance behind us and move on lads.

Many thanks again to James for running up and down the touch line shouting valuable encouragement to the team.

Rob.

Walsall RFC

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