IMPROVING Upton registered their third Midlands Two West (South) win in four weeks with an impressive 30-29 success against fourth-placed Old Laurentians.
Upton’s confidence was high, having run Newbold close the week before, and they boasted a strong squad.
Jason Smart returned with a strong performance in the second row along with the outstanding Guy Field.
Skipper Matthew Cock was back from injury at inside centre.
The pacy Laurentians opened the scoring on 10 minutes with a converted try when their powerful outside centre sliced through.
Upton were soon level when, after going through five phases, winger Dan Aldersey took a pop inside from Chris O’Neil to race under the posts.
O’Neil added the extras but Laurentians scored a second converted effort that was almost identical to their first.
Upton equalised again after man-of-the-match Charlie Abbey drove forward following a line-out and the ball was knocked away for Tom Dodge to scoot over the line.
O’Neil converted and added a penalty to make it 17-14 at the interval.
Laurentians took control of the second-half and a rolling maul gave them an unconverted try to regain the lead.
O’Neil and Matt Glading were sin-binned in quick succession for infringing at rucks and a penalty punished Upton.
With 20 minutes to go and down to 13 men, the hosts did not panic and played a pick-and-drive game around the fringes.
Scrum-half Alex Pimlow off-loaded for replacement Alex Flower to burst through a tackle and race 20 metres to score.
O’Neil was back to kick the conversion which made it 24-22.
Glading returned too and O’Neil kicked two penalties to extend the lead.
They proved crucial as Laurentians scord a converted try with one minute left to grab two bonus points.
Upton entertain Lutterworth in the quarter-finals of the RFU Midlands Intermediate Cup on Saturday.
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