Southam 15, Upton 6.

UPTON’S miserable form in Midlands Three West (South) continued with yet another away loss in a game they dominated.

Once again it was the start of the game that left Upton in a position where they had to chase the match.

After only three minutes, Southam won their line-out on the visitors’ 22 and routinely span the ball wide.

Poor tackling allowed the home side to set up a target for their forwards who supplied quick ball which was fed wide for the open-side flanker to barge through in the corner.

The conversion was missed but their score was added to when they converted a penalty to make it 8-0.

From then on Upton slowly got into the game.

They were continuously awarded penalties as the home side failed to roll away at the tackle area.

But their physicality in defence meant Upton could not find any gaps to score.

Upton missed one penalty chance to cut the arrears and the first-half ended 8-0.

The visitors continued to be the dominant side in the second-half as they won quality line-out ball from Chris Thomas and Max Macfarlane.

But the final pass was always their nemesis as they continually knocked on or threw poor passes.

Another penalty chance was missed before Rob Heeley took over the kicking duties and slotted two penalties to reduce the score to 8-6.

Upton now felt with 15 minutes to go that they could win the game but again and again chances to set up meaningful attacks were squandered by basic mistakes.

From a knock-on, Southam retrieved the ball 30 metres out and, after a couple of phases, once again powered over in the corner.

A superb conversion from wide out on the right meant the game was ultimately out of reach as the final five minutes petered out.