HEREFORD RFC battled their way to victory thanks to a late penalty try as the defeated Moseley Oak 16-15.

Moseley Oak had a six-point lead well into the last few minutes of injury time before Hereford put in desperate attacks and eventually forced a penalty try.

“A really good day at Wyeside,” said head coach Scott Sturdy. “The pitch was extremely wet, it was heavy underfoot and we had a severe downpour just before kick-off.

“We played against a game Moseley Oak team who were young, athletic and to a man, extremely physical. Hereford showed some real character today we took points from the boot to build our score.

“We showed attitude and character to see the game out when we came under pressure from Moseley Oak in the last couple of minutes.

“We’ve got some areas that we need to work on, but it’s great that we’ve got a good away win under our belts and a good home win, that’s two games in a row.

“Next week we go to unbeaten top of the league Newent. We know it’s going to be a really difficult contest, but we are really looking forward to it.”

Hereford looked quite sharp in the opening exchanges forcing a penalty, ten yards inside the Moseley Oak half and Iwan Holder slotted it to give the Wyesiders an early lead.

Moseley Oak had the better of possession and field position, they gathered a loose Hereford kick out of defence, moved the ball wide through hands and raced over in the corner.

A driving run in mid-field by Lennon Fishlock took play into the Moseley Oak half and forced a penalty, which Holder converted to take reduce the deficit to a single point 6-7 at half-time.

Against the run of play a Moseley Oak player picked up a loose ball in his own half, raced 50 yards and ran round under the posts to open up a six-point lead on 59 minutes.

Holder kicked a third penalty for Hereford which Moseley Oak countered with one of their own.

Hereford put extreme and consistent pressure on the Moseley Oak defence for a ten-minute period, the visitors were penalised several times in the red zone and eventually the referee lost patience and awarded Hereford a penalty try to win the match.

The 1870s came away from Kenilworth with a couple of points from a 34 – 29 loss. They keep their second place in their league and will look forward to the visit of Tamworth II to Wyeside next week.

Lewis Jordan scored four tries for the 1870s and Fletcher Smith the other, conversions were landed by Jordon Sheehy and Ollie Bullied.