Hawks happy to accept a late gift

By DAVID LAWRENCE

Birm’ & Sol ……15

Henley …………24

HENLEY withstood a thrilling fightback from their hosts to claim maximum points at Portway.

But it took a fortunate try from full-back Sam Randle eight minutes from the end to finally subdue the Bees.

They had threatened to upset the high-flying Hawks, who had prop Dave Manning sent off in the closing seconds.

Jack Jolly kicked a penalty to hand the Bees an early lead, but the game swung in Henley’s favour after a madcap few minutes in which prop Nick Rigby was injured and fellow front row Nick Bingham was sent to the sin bin.

They were still coming to terms with that when quick ball from a scrum allowed winger Liam O’Neill to scamper down the blindside to open the scoring.

Three minutes later, an excellent break from flyhalf Dan Barnes led to Ryan O’Neill adding a second try and two Liam O’Neill conversions created a 14-3 advantage.

A try from Jacob Albon took Henley clear but also kickstarted a fightback.

Back-row Umraan Jadwat and scrum-half Mike Hagan dotted down for Bees. But hopes of a home win were dashed when a misplaced pass bobbled over the Bees line and Randle accepted the gift moments before Manning saw red when binned for a second time.

TEAMS

BIRM’ & SOL: Phillips, Venus, Kelly, Nunney, Dight, Jolly, Hagan; Rigby, Raimondi, Bingham, Spink, Weaver, Scriven, Brown, Jadwat

Replacements: Pearl, Probert, Stephens, Tilsley, Smith

HENLEY: Randle, Wood, Andre O’Neill R, O’Neill L, Barnes, Webb; Cook, Emery, Manning, Albon, Hyde, Lunnon, Hall, Bradley

Replacements: Stobbs, Primett, Neal, Lowe, MacDougall.

REFEREE: Owen Taylor

ATTENDANCE: 246

Star man

Dan Barnes – Henley