OLD Halesonians started their league campaign with a 29-13 home victory over newly-promoted Lichfield last Saturday.

A large crowd watched as the home side were quick out of the blocks with immediate pressure on their visitors.

After five minutes, hooker Pete Fitzgerald threw to Loz Breeze, who took the ball off the top and returned it to the supporting Fitzgerald who carried the ball around the line out and through several tackle attempts as he crashed over the line for the first try of the game. That was turned into a 7-0 lead following the conversion by Chris Hooper.

The next 10 minutes was much the same with Hales dominant in forward and back play. Telling runs by Loz Breese, Owen Jones and Fitzgerald seemed too much for the visitors.

Another combination of forwards and backs made ground. Scrum half Nathan Jones linked well with fly half Matt Williams and on 15 minutes second row Loz Breese drove over for an uncoverted try.

For the majority of the spectators it seemed that it was going to be a wholly one sided affair. However, Lichfield had other ideas and seemed to slowly rally themselves into a more cohesive unit.

The hard running of their backs resulted in three points from a penalty to take the half time score to 12-3.

After the re-start, again the visitors were rewarded with another three points to make the score 12-6.

The battle continued with Hales' pack having the edge with new players Guy Field, Owen Jones and Nigel Burrows adding power to the set piece.

Lichfield continued to hold their ground and looked well back in the game.

The first part of the second half was the same with both teams matching each other in attack and defence. Hales made some telling runs led by props Rich Taylor and Tom Dempsey, supported by man of the match Breese and great power running by Jones.

But still the home side could not finish their moves off, the last dropped pass being the main problem.

Replacements took the field in the form of talisman and player coach Mark Evans with debutant hooker Callum Young, 18. Evans seemed to steady the ship and build composure from the first lineout.

After 60 minutes, Hales were back into their stride as centres Carl Robinson and Andy Holloway broke the defence. Hales' scrummage was in the ascendancy and open play saw a move down the right side of the pitch finished off by Robinson.

Pressure continued for Hales who added to their total as Breese scored his second try of the game, converted by Hooper to make it 26-6.

More pressure then forced a penalty for Hooper to complete the home side's scoring on 29-6. Lichfield never gave up and on 82 minutes worked their way up the field for a consolation try in the corner making the final score 29-13.

Team Manager Simon Hussey said: "This was an important start for us, a victory with a bonus point in front of a large vibrant home crowd. We were disappointed with the middle part of the game when we should have been more dominant. But a really promising start in the lead up to some hard fixtures in the next few weeks

Old Hales next game is away at Longton this Saturday.