Upton avenged their early season hammering by their Warwickshire rivals with a display of fine continuity rugby. From the first ten minutes Upton moved the ball round with pace and strength that was equally matched at the breakdown and had the visitors defence stretched. The first try was not long in coming and game from simple first phase rugby. Good lineout ball was delivered 30 metres out to the backs where Fly half Dan Keyte's move allowed skipper and Full back Chris O'Neil to burst through two tackles before popping to outside centre Alex Pimlow. The pacey three quarter showed superb footwork to pirouette around the opposition defence close to the touchline before speeding in for a try. 5-0.
Upton then took their foot completely off the gas as the rest of the first half saw the home side concede and barrage of needless penalties. However their cause was helped when the visitors prop was given a straight red card when punching Keyte after the fly half had been blown up for not moving away at the tackle area.
Despite this the first half ended at 5-0 and with harsh words from a frustrated coach Nat Kelsey Upton went into the second half with the message to keep it simple and use the wind if necessary to gain a territorial advantage.
With these words ringing in their ears Upton did produce a very good second half performance.
The pack led by the tireless Matt Jeffreys and able supported by strong running from Russell Price, Luke Mathie and Matt Bookham continually supplied quick ball for the backs and from a spell of quick hands in midfield particularly Rich Mills showing a bit of form from old, the ball was given to Pimlow who was held up a yard short but popped the ball up to Left winger Will Carr who dropped over for a second try. 10-0.
Old Leamingtonians had no answer to the pace of Upton's game and further tries were inevitable. Great continuity between forwards and backs led to a ruck 5 metres from the visitors line and as the ball shot out of the back blindside Oli Jones dived on the ball and gave a sublime back of the hand pass to scrum half Brad Raymond who powered over with three would be tacklers on his shoulder to score. O'Neil converted to make it 17-0.
Upton continued to supply the backs with quick ball and the impressive O'Neil was almost impossible to stop all day and continually gave the forwards a target to hit.
A final try came after O'Neil had burst into the visitors 22 close to the line and quick ruck ball was popped blind to substitute open side Max McFarlane to score on his first team debut and 18th birthday.
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