South West Division One

Barry Hill 18, Marlow 11

ON THEIR last outing in South West 1 Berry Hill endured over 10 hours of rugby before achieving a win. This time they made the perfect start.

"We played eight games before getting a point. It was pretty heartbreaking but this time we are already in profit so hopefully we can build from here," said player coach Lee Osborne.

Osborne, an old head in a young and ambitious team, collected a try, two penalty goals and a conversion in this encouraging start for the Hillmen.

"It was a good team effort. We put ourselves under the cosh at the end when we were cruising along and sitting on a 18-6 advantage. Then we gave away a silly try which gave Marlow the incentive they needed and for the last seven or eight minutes we had to defend.

"It was a lot of pressure and a frantic finish but we defended well and deserved to win," he said.

Berry Hill and Marlow were the league's newly promoted teams and both will take encouragement from the other league results.

"With a couple of exceptions there were not six points separating the other results. It could be a very close league this time," he reflected.

A trip to Bridgwater will provide a stiff test on Saturday week and Osborne and coach Ady Powles are likely to make a number of changes for this Saturday's Powergen Intermediate Cup game against North Bristol.

"We picked up a few injuries so we will probably rest a few players," he said.

Saturday's victory was built on a solid performance by the pack and a very well organised defence.

Neil James, deputising at full-back, had an excellent game while the centre partnership of Powell and Lane worked well and quickly closed down opposition attacks.

Osborne led from the front with a first half try, a conversion and penalty goal. He added a further penalty goal while Ben Lewis scored his team's second try.