Grove 22, Newbury Stags 5

Strong defence saw Grove close out victory at a windswept Cane Lane and climb to third in Southern Counties North.

Leading 10-5 after having the wind advantage, the hosts played their best rugby against the elements in the second half.

Grove will have targeted five points from this game, but after only one first-half try, should be happy enough with a hard-fought win against determined opponents.

Things looked very good when flanker Guy Nicholl dummied his way inside to finish a sweeping Grove move after just three minutes.

Scrum half Roger Sevier converted and the hosts piled on more pressure.

Joe Bellinger was held up, then fellow centre Ashley Lane couldn’t quite latch on to wing Gareth Hudson’s pass.

A minute later, Grove prop Jimmy Wallbridge and Newbury flanker Jamie Crawford were lucky not to be sent off after staging their own private boxing match.

Referee George Shield felt a severe telling-off was sufficient.

Sevier’s penalty made it 10-0, but Grove’s defence seemed to be caught out by a driven line-out on 30 minutes.

Newbury had narrowly failed just before with a similar move, but lock Ashley Taylor had little trouble in getting over the line this time.

Grove created one more clear-cut chance before the break, but Nicholl couldn’t get the ball away to wing Harry Carr.

Stags fly half Dave Jones saw his long-range penalty blown just short on 44 minutes.

Grove lost captain Nick Sevier to an ankle injury, then Stags hooker William Gibb went down with a serious back problem.

He couldn’t be moved, so the match switched to the adjacent pitch as the ambulance crew tended to Gibbs.

Having frustrated their opponents, Grove found an extra gear when Jamie Burns came on at centre.

Burns’s break led to Stags conceding a five-metre scrum from which Grove went left and Carr survived a despairing tackle to dive over. Roger Sevier converted for 17-5.

On 78 minutes, Carr was just forced into touch as he off-loaded to Bellinger, so the latter’s try was ruled out.

Replacement prop Steve Dixey bagged try No 3 following Nicholl’s line-out tap.

Stags earned a series of stoppage-time penalties, one of which led to a yellow card for Grove lock Paul Miles, but they never looked like scoring.

Grove: Clare, Carr, A Lane (Burns 55), Bellinger, Hudson, N Sevier (Simmonds 45), R Sevier, Wallbridge (Dixey 41), North, T Lane, Sherwood, Miles, Kerr, G Nicholl, Chapman.

Referee: G Shield (East Midlands).

Man-of-the-match: G Nicholl.