10:23am Thursday 24th April 2008
Old Hales RFC completed the home leg of their promotion lap of honour in style with a nine-try demolition of Newcastle and in the process were crowned Midlands Four West North champions.
The unstoppable side are the first in the club's history to finish the league season undefeated. Furthermore, they have conceded fewer points (99) than any other side playing in full divisions in the entire RFU league structure.
This statistic is something head coach Gareth Smith was particularly pleased with.
He said: "The coaching staff are very proud of the defence record of completing the season with less than 100 points against us all season both home and away.
"To us that is some achievement that gave us the platform to provide the style of rugby the players, coaches and supporters want to see and enjoy."
The game itself saw Hales finish the season as they had started, with an emphatic display of attacking rugby after running out 47-3 winners.
The difference could have been a great deal more had a difficult side wind not limited Hales' fly half Ben Smith to one conversion from nine.
The first try came just seven minutes in, when Hales were awarded a five-metre attacking scrum.
Steve Gollins picked up and offloaded to Chris Wagstaff, who powered in to score. Immediately, Hales returned to the visitor's 22, with an attacking line-out. This was caught and driven, orchestrated by the excellent Alan Hubbleday, who duly grounded the ball over the line.
Hales were back threatening the Newcastle try line with some excellent running rugby and Mark Wakefield scored two quick fire tries shortly before half time.
On the stroke of half time, captain Seb Rose added his own score, which Smith converted.
Hales continued their systematic dissection of the visitors after the break, with the effective Jon Tideswell breaking the line 25-yards out and racing in for a score. This gave Hales a chance to ring the changes and field their substitutes, one of which, Andrew Hill, was playing his final game for the club.
Another fine team try for Hales came in the 63rd minute, starting from their own 22. Excellent support play from the back-row combined with fingertip passing from the Hales backs created space from Smith to score in the corner. Wakefield added a well-taken individual try in the 70th minute for a personal hat-trick.
Late on super-sub Chris Sambuca-Deeks scored his fifth try of the season. This rounded off an excellent victory and season for the Wassell Grove outfit with a smile and kick-started the celebrations.
The delighted head coach said: "The whole squad have been tremendous both on and off the field which is always a key component to successful teams.
"I must also point out that we were well supported by our seconds, they were perhaps more successful than the firsts in that they also became champions and also won the prestigious Second Team Cup.
"While this is recognised as a momentous occasion, it will be back to the hard work in readiness for a tough challenge in the higher league next season."
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