HEREFORD RFC kept their league safety hopes alive with a 22-27 away victory at Old Halesonians.
Cal Duncan scored the winning try for the Wyesiders to set up a relegation showdown at home to Stratford-Upon-Avon on March 22.
Head Coach, Scott Sturdy said: “We are still in the fight and we shall continue to fight.
“We shall use the next weekend wisely and then we will play Stratford upon Avon in an all-encompassing decider for the season.
“The boys will have to go to the well again and dig out another five-pointer if we want to survive at this level.”
Playing against a strong wind in the first half, some determined defence was needed to deny the big Halesonian forwards, who launched attack after attack on the Hereford goal line.
The Wyesiders showed proper grit to turn the ball over and clear their lines, only to be attacked again.
Hereford moved into attack mode and scored a beautiful breakaway try. A well weighted kick ahead from Josh Wright was chased down and gathered by Stephan Dyers, he off-loaded to Joe Vaughan, who raced in under the sticks. Josh Wright landed the conversion to give Hereford a seven-point lead.
Hereford continued to absorb pressure throughout the first half, but again they broke out.
A penalty kicked to the corner led to a scrum in mid field and an excellent backs’ movement from left to right saw Rhys Proctor beat his man and go over in the corner to take the score to 0 – 12.
Halesonians responded and broke through when Hereford conceded two penalties on their own line.
The visitors failed to get organised quickly enough and Halesonians crossed in the corner.
Hereford continued to play aggressive rugby and got caught with an interception on the half-way line, which allowed the Halesonian winger a clear run to score in the corner and take the score to 10-12.
The Wyesiders showed great resilience and a wonderful mid-field move saw Wright go through and off-load inside to Tom Ewins, who proved he still had the legs to get over the line. Wright slotted the conversion and the score at half-time was 10-19.
As in the first half, the Halesonians attacked relentlessly throughout the second half.
The hosts had definitely not given up and a brace of tries, one of which was converted, gave them a lead for the first time at 22-19.
With the strong wind at their backs Hereford had decided to play a kicking game, which proved to be a mistake and several penalties were conceded, but Wright kicked a penalty to equalise.
The game looked to be lost and Hereford’s season seemed to be over after losing the ball a couple of times in the Halesonians half.
Halesonians kicked a penalty to touch, Hereford stole the lineout and worked their way into the 22.
The visitors won a penalty, kicked to the corner and won the lineout. Mal Stuffins broke through, looked like scoring, but was brought down with an amazing tackle.
However, two phases later, deep into injury time big Duncan got the ball and driving through three defenders got the try that Hereford needed to win 22-27.
