Shipston-on-Stour 10, Upton-upon-Severn 13.

SHIPSTON put in a gritty performance against unbeaten Midlands Three West (South) leaders Upton, and were unlucky to lose after leading for much of the clash.

The hosts looked fired up from the outset as they chased down the opposition and ran the ball back hard, playing high-tempo rugby.

Able to take the ball going forward, Tom Rance, James Wootton and Matt Corby made the defence work as they ran at their opposite numbers, looping off one another’s shoulders.

Andy Hunt put in a stalwart performance, tackling anything that moved, supporting the ball-carriers and causing a nuisance for the opposition at ruck time.

With Upton struggling to keep up with the pace of the game, Aaron Neale made a brilliant turn-over just in front of the crowd after Will Davies had chased down his opposite man.

Kicking to touch five metres from the visitors’ line, the resulting line-out was taken cleanly and mauled forward, but quickly disrupted by Upton.

Shipston didn’t panic and instead went wide through fly-half and centres, allowing winger James Woods to dive over left of the posts to the delight of the crowd.

Shipston went into half-time with a 7-3 lead.

After the change of ends, the tempo of the game dropped which was unsurprising given the efforts that had been put in throughout the first-half. The Rams then broke out of their half with another excellent move, this time Rance put a clever chip over the oncoming defensive line.

Corby, Rance and Wootton then poured forward with the former collecting the ball as it bounced up, charging downfield.

Unable to find the support runners, he set the ball back well, allowing the forwards to go through further phases.

The move was halted as the Upton winger infringed giving Toby Jones a difficult opportunity to kick at goal from a wide position, which he duly slotted.

Upton then pulled off a move of their own which saw their pacey outside-centre break for the line with only full-back James Sale to beat. He was initially rounded by the pace man, but recovered well, putting in a splendid tap-tackle and preventing the try. Shipston scrambled back in defence and held Upton off before winning a scrum on their five-metre line.

However, Rance’s clearance kick was charged down, resulting in a further scrum.

The visitors then produceed a well-worked move which saw their number eight peeling and tying up two defenders before off-loading to the scrum-half who in turn went wide to the winger as the Rams pushed hard in defence.

The converted score put Upton into the lead for the first time, with 15 minutes to go.

The visitors then worked calmly to close out the game.

Shipston kept their motivation to the final whistle and put in some patient build-up play as they worked themselves up the pitch from their own 22.