Express & Star

Kidderminster named Rugby World team of the month

Kidderminster Carolians have been named Rugby World magazine’s team of the month.

Published

Ian Bletcher’s side lost just their second game of the season on Saturday, when ill-discipline allowed Old Laurentians to come back from 21-3 down to beat them 22-21.

But on the whole, it’s been a successful campaign so far.

Kidderminster are currently second in Midlands 2 West (South), just four points off top spot.

They’ve also got two cup semi-finals to look forward to in the coming weeks, having reached the last four of the North Midlands Shield and the Midland region of RFU Intermediate Cup.

“Bearing in mind that last season we were close to being relegation from the same division, we’ve had a good run,” said club president Kevin Woodham. “We’ve got a good chance of going up.

“We lost against Kenilworth earlier this season, when we were pretty poor in the first half and they got too far in front.

“On Saturday, we had too many players in the sin bin and in fairness to Laurentians, they were pretty powerful in the second half.

“But we’ve won 10 of our 12 league games and have done well in the cups. Arthur Morgan is playing well, he scored five tries against Nuneaton Old Edwardians.

“Simon Clarke in the second row puts in an excellent performance most weeks and Mike Protheroe, the skipper, is very influential, he tackles everything that moves.

“It’s a team effort, they play a good standard of rugby and are well coached, and the success has come from it.”