BROMSGROVE aces Phil Horton and Sam Montieri scored tries as North Midlands ended their County Championship Bill Beaumont Cup Second Division campaign in style by trouncing Somerset 48-19.
A heavy defeat in their opening match against Surrey effectively put paid to North Midlands’ hopes of winning promotion back to the top tier of the competition and reaching next week’s final.
But they showed the benefits of playing together with gradual improvement over their three matches in the southern section of the competition.
Having battled to victory over Devon at Brixham last week, North Midlands played with fluency and confidence and rattled in seven tries at Stourbridge’s Stourton Park.
They were given an early lead by Luctonians wing Will Sparrow who slotted a third minute penalty and built on that a try from Bromsgrove number eight Horton who drove over from the base of a five metres scrum.
Three tries in an 11 minutes purple patch just before half-time accelerated North Midlands towards their win.
Montieri was among those to cross the whitewash as his try was sandwiched by scores from Stourbridge wing Tom Jarvis and Steve Leach, who powered over unopposed for the bonus point.
Somerset resisted for the first ten minutes of the second half when North Midlands captain Chris Goddard drove over from a five metres line out and Sparrow added the conversion from a difficult angle.
The away side’s defence was again found wanting when Luctonians full-back Joe Doyle ghosted through and Sparrow tagged on the extras.
Jarvis made it 48-0 when he latched on to a cross-field kick from Tom Jones before North Midlands lost a little shape when a raft of substitutions were made in the final quarter.
That gave Somerset the opportunity to rally with full-back Joe Hall crossing after a length of the pitch kick-and-chase and right wing Sylvan Edwards scoring twice in five minutes.
