Battling Moseley leave it late

Oct 23 2006 By Roger Clarke, Birmingham Mail

ACCORDING to coach Ian Smith, Moseley indulged in a little reverse psychology in their 32-25 win against Sedgley Tigers at Billesley Common.

Tongue firmly in cheek, he said: "We played the second-half first, and the first-half second."

The Red and Blacks have shown a propensity to compete and even lead in the first half of a game then switch off at the start of the second period with fatal results.

Against the Tigers the switch-off came early as the visitors, buoyed by the wind at their backs, built up a 22-0 lead and it was looking as if the Manchester side were on track for their first win of the season.

Fly-half Phil Jones fed winger Andy Craig for the opener, added the conversion then a 60-metre penalty before he went over himself. Centre Paul Cox was sin-binned for Moseley and the Tigers, growing in confidence, took advantage with full-back Chris Wilkinson going over for a third try.

The Tigers' hooker Mark Jones levelled things up when he was yellow-carded and that seemed to stir the home side, who grabbed a lifeline on the stroke of half-time when centre Daren O'Leary went over from 40 yards out.

The second half was all Moseley with back row James Rodwell powering over for a converted try two minutes in.

When Craig was sin-binned, fly-half Ollie Thomas slotted over the penalty to make it 22-15 and when winger Carl Colvin went over Thomas levelled the scores.

The Tigers lost second row Ed Morris on the hour but then took the lead again with a Jones penalty and held out until the 79th minute when Cox squeezed in for a bonus-point try converted by Thomas, who made sure with a drop deep in injury time.

Smith said: "We under-performed in the first half and gifted them too much time, space and possession when they had the wind and we paid the consequences.

"We were very positive after half-time. We knew what we had to do, came out and actually did it. It showed tremendous character to change that sort of result and turn that sort of performance around."