Upton fall to woeful defeat in league (From Malvern Gazette)

Upton fall to woeful defeat in league

1:00pm Wednesday 6th March 2013 in Sport

UPTON produced one of their worst displays of the season in losing 36-8 at home to mid-table Earlsdon in Midlands Two West (South).

They started in confident mood with a strong team having won their last game at Old Street in early February.

The hosts opened the scoring on two minutes when back row Oli Jones broke from a maul 30 metres out before feeding winger Joe Ayres who sidestepped his opposite number and raced in for a try.

Tom Bryant missed the conversion from out wide but added a penalty soon after to make it 8-0.

Upton nearly doubled their lead when James Kirkpatrick supported Ayres again down the left wing but he could not offload his pass to Chris O’Neil and was held up on the line.

However, it all went wrong as bottom-of-the-table Upton conceded possession after holding on and Earlsdon cleared their lines to eventually hit back with a penalty.

The visitors soon scored their first try to make it 10-8 and Upton were dealt a double injury blow.

Hooker Liam Moloney left the field with a suspected broken ankle and skipper Matt Cock followed with possible broken ribs.

Centre Dan Aldersey had already dropped out in the warm-up due to an ankle problem.

Earlsdon added another penalty before half-time and took Upton apart in the second period.

Despite having their number eight red carded for a second yellow, they scored three more tries as Upton.