Stafford hosted the first league game of 2017 with an encounter against Old Yardleians. The visitors travelled on the back of a hard first half of the season, taking only two wins out of eleven games which had seen them competing to escape the bottom half of the league table. Stafford were looking to build on their good performance at Newcastle and to overturn the defeat which Old Yardleians held over them in the opening part of the season.

The opening quarter of the game was a very scrappy affair with a slippery surface and grey sky not helping the game. Fielding a very heavy set of forwards the visitors defence was solid against a probing Stafford attack. Any momentum built by the home side was absorbed by a fighting Yardleians line forcing penalties from a vigilant referee. Stafford continued to look for a way through, they nearly got their reward with an intelligent kick from Matty Walklate which caused chaos for the defence as a flying Ollie Leigh chased and was inches short of opening the scoring. With one of their first attacks of the afternoon, the visitors bullied their way up the pitch and into the Stafford twenty-two. The home side defence was equal to the assault and a tenacious turn over re-secured the ball. A scintillating Stafford counter attack saw Louis Dewsbury tearing past two defenders and running the length of the pitch to take the first try of the afternoon, catching his breath he then added the conversion. Stafford went into half time leading 7 – 0 in a game which both teams were finding it difficult to get any continuity.

Stafford started the second half strongly as they looked to exert some dominance in the match. The game settled back into a Stafford attack against a dogged defence which exploited any ball which became available. As both sides competed strongly passions started to boil over with the home side incurring a yellow card, temporarily reducing them to fourteen on the pitch. Stafford responded with a short period of attacking play which tore through the defence, Tom Windibank bought down just short of the line but popping the ball up for Rhys Williams to step his way across the line for the second try of the afternoon. Old Yardleians started to use their considerable forward weight advantage to drive the ball up the field but they couldn’t get within sight of the Stafford line. With a full complement back on the pitch, Stafford looked to finish the final ten minutes with a flourish but in a tiring encounter there were no more points available for the weary teams.