A National League One match, the outcome of which would likely be determined by the prevalence of the Moseley forwards or the Blackheath backs, and it was the former who triumphed.
Despite the dry, windless overhead conditions, and a good surface given the deluge of rain in the preceding days, the Club could not impose the pace and width required to unleash their backline, and although two late tries added a huge dollop of whipped cream for the home crowd, it was a fully merited win for the West Midlanders.
The catalogue of unforced errors from both teams was endless, and it was Blackheath who obviously paid the heavier price, but not in the first quarter.
It took just 27 seconds for Moseley to infringe within close-enough range for Tom Ffitch to open the scoring with three points, and twice the hosts were denied with moves down the left flank, first by losing the ball forward on the goal-line, and then with a foot in touch.
Twice also, Moseley went for touch when easy points were on offer, only to be repelled, and on 21 minutes, quick ball saw Jake Hennessey take play into contact, Noah Sloot open the gap, and Tom Baldwin up in support to send Paul Schroter across for an excellent try and an unlikely 10-0 lead for Blackheath.
Not for long though. A great kick to touch from Mose fly-half Tighe Maxwell-Whiteley, enabled the hosts to pick and probe once more, and at the third time of asking, prop David Langley stretched out to score.
Then, moments later, a calamitous mid-air collision between Hennessey and Augy Slowik resulted in loose ball being snapped up by Mose centre Morgan Adderly-Jones for an easy run-in, and with scrum-half Jack Jolly adding both conversions, the Birmingham side took the lead.
On a perfect afternoon for place-kickers, Ffitch struck a long-range effort to reduce the arrears to a single point at the break, but it was the final time Blackheath would trouble the scoreboard.
With a disrupted, malfunctioning lineout, and a scrum under massive pressure, the visitors had little to work off, and further hindered themselves by taking the ball back over their goal-line as they tried to relieve pressure by breaking out of defence.
Somehow, following a fourth close-range put-in, the Club turned possession and began to lift the siege, but the hard-graft came to nothing as ball was spilt on half-way, moved quickly, and Adderly-Jones sped over for his second try.
One brief moment of light appeared for Blackheath, as Schroter broke clear once again, and Jolly was dispatched for illegally killing the move, but the visitors couldn’t capitalise, and when numbers evened up as Archie Holland paid the price for another Club scrum-infringement, hope all but disintegrated.
Blackheath continued to chase, but Moseley sealed the result in the dying moments as wing Aquile Smith scored down the right flank, and Freddie Painter added a fifth try following an interception.
Next Saturday, Blackheath will be looking for a better performance as they welcome Darlington Mowden Park to The Utilita. Kick-off is at 3.00 pm.
Birmingham Moseley
Tries: Langley 27, Adderly-Jones 30, 63, Smith 76, Painter 79
Conv: Jolly 27, 30, 63, Taylor 76, 79
Blackheath
Tries: Schroter 21
Conv: Ffitch 21
Pens: Ffitch 1, 33
Attendance: 856
| 15 | . | Augustin Slowik |
| 14 | . | Jake Lloyd |
| 13 | . | Oskar Hirskyj-Douglas |
| 12 | . | Oli Burgess |
| 11 | . | Jake Hennessey |
| 10 | . | Tom Ffitch |
| 9 | . | Jordan Burns |
| 1 | . | Will Davis |
| 2 | . | Billy Harding |
| 3 | . | Andrew Boye |
| 4 | . | Tom Everard |
| 5 | . | Tevita Cavubati |
| 6 | . | Paul Schroter |
| 7 | . | Noah Sloot |
| 8 | . | Tom Baldwin (Capt) |
| 16 | . | Alex Withell |
| 17 | . | Archie Holland |
| 18 | . | Mike Hoyt |
| 19 | . | Matt Armstrong |
| 20 | . | Josh Smart |
Graham Cox
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