UPTON maintained their Midlands Four West (South) promotion challenge with a 33-7 victory against Stoke Old Boys on Saturday.
Despite the home side enjoying almost 100 per cent of possession and territory early on, the physical nature of Old Boys prevented Upton from scoring.
And things were made more difficult for the hosts when Nathan Tomkins and his opposite number were binned after punches were thrown.
However, after calming words from skipper James Gammond, Upton began to sit off any attempts to derail the game and sought to find holes in the Stoke defence.
With a firm platform up front from the forwards, centres Matt Cock and Will Dovey proved instrumental in all five of Upton’s tries.
The first came when right winger Martin Muleko weaved his way between the posts and soon afterwards left winger Josh Finch burst down the right wing to barge over for the second try. Both were converted by fly half Oli Swift.
Entering the second half, Harry Stokes was marauding around the park at number 8, with Charlie Abbey and Andrew Ford ably supporting him.
With Chris O’Neil at full back showing impressive rugby knowledge with some of his moves, a third try was inevitable and came when replacement winger George Ainge powered through to score between the posts.
Soon afterwards, livewire openside Tomkins popped up on Cock’s shoulder to score the bonus point try. Swift again scored both conversions.
Upton put the match to bed when the ball went wide to Finch, who raced down the left touchline to score his second try and Upton’s fifth.
With nothing to lose, the visitors threw the ball around in the last ten minutes and, despite a valiant Upton defence, they squeezed over to score with the last touch of the game for a converted try.
Upton return to action on Saturday, April 9 when they make the trip to Alcester.
