With last Saturdays emphatic 41-5 win over Five Ways Old Edwardians, Greyhound Rugby Club have confirmed their status in the Midlands Four West (North) division for another year.

The side went into the home fixture knowing that their destiny was in their own hands as a win would see them safe, regardless of the result at Warley, who needed to beat Bromyard to have any hope of sending the Dog’s down in their place and coach Mark Jones was pleased with the way his team dealt with the amount of pressure on the game.

“It was one heck of an excellent game; they knew they had to win today and I thought the boys were thoroughly outstanding. I wasn’t expecting that score to be honest with you, I thought it would be a lot closer than that, but we had a few players back from injury today and everything we had tried in training came off. It was important we stayed in this league and I’m very proud of everyone at the club in helping to achieve that goal”.

One of the players come back from injury that made a telling contribution was Elliot ‘Elmo’ Phillips, who despite being out for six weeks with a broken thumb, ran in four tries in a dominant display of rugby.

“Yeah I really enjoyed that. I think we played well and it was a cracking result, just what we needed. We were really pumped today, and switched on from the start. It means alot to the lads, I mean we just had to stay in this league we couldn’t go back down as the standard in the division below is so poor, so for the boys to progress and improve their rugby we needed to win and maintain our league status to enable us to push on next season”.

Another way that the club is looking to progress is by adding to the coaching staff. Not only is Jones brining in a sprint/fitness coach over the summer but he will be seeing the return of former coach Pete Williams, who is being brought in to give the backs some extra impetus.

“Yes hopefully we will have Pete coming back in to take a look at adding an extra dimension to our backs division. Pete went away to learn, to add to his knowledge at Ludlow this year and he has come back to us ready and hungry to try and give something extra to the boys that could drive us away from another relegation battle”.

Following Saturdays game Williams will be very pleased with the level of performance that the back line appears capable of as they ran in six of the seven tries that Greyhound scored against a bewildered Five Ways side.

Phillips scored the first of his four tries just two minutes into the game and that set the tone for the rest of the game.

The Dog’s scored a further four tries in the half, Phillips getting his hat-trick as well as Captain Jamie Gibbons and Joe Morris running in tries, giving the home side a 29-5 lead at half time.

The second half continued in the same vain as the first as Phillips ran in his fourth try of the game and Nathan Morris’s try on the hour mark wrapped up the points and ensured Greyhounds survival.