James racks up 37 points in Old Leamingtonians rout

OLs were quickly in the ascendancy and scored four tries inside the first 15 minutes to secure the bonus point.

Scrum-half Brad James produced the first of his five tries, with Simon Hemming, Reece Jones and Joe Tallimino, with his first senior try, also touching down.

Two further tries from James helped OLs get to half-time with a 34-point lead, with Pershore unable to gain any reward for large chunks of possession.

The second half followed a similar pattern with Pershore’s attacking efforts being met with resolute defence and the visitors almost being breached at will by the dominant OLs three-quarters.

The first try of the second period was touched down by flanker Tom Heslop after good forward pressure and this was quickly followed by a flowing move that saw right-winger Ryan Dee outpace the retreating defence to touch down under the posts.

More forward pressure saw flanker Sam Brittan score his debut try for OLs, converted by James.

Fly-half Tom Eales was next on the scoresheet with an unconverted try before James took centre stage with searing runs from the half-way line yielding two more touchdowns, one converted.

Pershore were still totally committed to the game but they were now beginning to tire and, from another flowing move, centre Hemming claimed his second try with a defence-breaking run, converted by James.

The game was nearing full-time when, from another sweeping three-quarters move, left-wing Jason Hobman touched down wide out to allow James to convert and take his personal tally of points to 37.