OLD Halesonians made it through to the semi-final of the North Midlands Cup with a 24-7 away victory over Bromsgrove last Saturday.

A rare break from league action saw Hales travel to their local rivals for quarter-final contest.

A rain soaked pitch and strong winds welcomed both teams for the much-anticipated meeting.

Early driving mauls showed the intentions by the Hales forwards, particularly back row Owen Jones, Jay Martin and Nigel Burrows. Second rows Tom King and Guy Field did their bit with Field constantly putting Hales on the front foot.

The front row of Louis Padian, Callum Young and Rich Taylor started to dominate early.

After seven minutes of constant pressure, the Hales pack forced a scrum five yards out from the Bromsgrove line.

The ball came to the back of the scrum where scrum half Greg Smith picked up and burst through the home defence and for the opening try. The difficult conversion was made to look easy by the in form Chris Hooper.

A further eight minutes passed with Hales looking dominant in the set piece. King won his ball clean on halfway, Greg Smith fed fly half Tom Harris to centre Carl Robinson who split the Bromsgrove defence then passed to the supporting Hooper, who then put flying winger Luke Smith in for his first try to lead 12-0

The visitors kept on the pressure with forwards and backs combining well to breach the home defence several times. On 33 minutes Hales went over once again through second row Field, the conversion by Hooper making the score 19-0

Only moments later, following an accidental collision, Hales number eight Owen Jones was forced to leave the field with a suspected broken jaw. He was replaced by debutant Andy Fitzgerald who quickly settled into the game.

With only injury time left in the first half Hales switched off for a few minutes giving Bromsgrove the opportunity to score a well worked try for a half time score of 19-7.

The second half saw both sides attempting to play expansive rugby, however, conditions made ball control difficult.

A final try from Smith wrapped up the win and a place in the semi-final.

Team manager Simon Hussey said: "This was a very good performance in difficult conditions and a well deserved result."

Old Hales return to league action this Saturday at home against Bromsgrove once more.