STAFFORD 1ST XV vs NEWCASTLE 1ST XV. 19TH OCTOBER 2019. LEAGUE MATCH.

Stafford welcomed Newcastle to Coopers Park for the first league game at the new home of rugby in the county town. Matches between the teams are always hotly contested with the last four league fixtures seeing honours even with each side holding a home and away win over the other. There was an enormous home side support who had come to toast the opening of the new premises and cheer on the 1st XV, A XV and Bulldogs in the first rugby to be played at the end of Blackberry Lane.

The game opened with what proved to be the first squalling shower of the afternoon sweeping in from the direction of the old castle fields. The slippery surface and greasy ball created an opening ten minutes that was littered with minor errors for both teams. A string of decent attacking phases resulted in Newcastle conceding a penalty and the silky boot of Louis Dewsbury pushed the ball between the uprights for the first score of the afternoon. The visitors responded with some pressure of their own and two subsequent penalties created a marginal lead. The home side afternoon continued to worsen when a yellow card temporarily reduced the county town team to fourteen on the pitch. A further penalty and converted try added to a growing Newcastle tally before Stafford were restored to a full squad on the pitch. The rain continued to sheet down, making the conditions complicated, before the referee’s whistle signalled the end of a murky half of rugby. Stafford went into half time trailing by 3 – 16 but still very much in competition in a tight game.

The second half opened strongly for Stafford, playing rugby which drove them deep into the opposition territory. The Newcastle XV responded to everything thrown at it, eventually clearing their lines after mounting an exhausting defence. Stafford maintained the pressure, each foray creeping closer to the line until Alex Rock found his way across but was denied by the referee’s whistle. It took a particularly vicious assault which left prone bodies strewn across the floor before Carl Williams touched the ball down for a try, converted by Louis Dewsbury. Newcastle put together some good periods of rugby but the county town team scrapped for every opportunity. The two sides were very evenly matched and the momentum could have swung either way. Stafford were having the better of the half but the rain made any consistency difficult. The advantage came when the Stafford forwards scrapped hard to retrieve the ball from a pressurised scrum, Sam Egerton created the gap and a charging Louis Dewsbury drifted in under the posts for a try, adding the conversion for a narrow one-point lead. The game spiralled towards a tiring end, but as time ran out on the clock the referee raised his hand to signal an advantage to Newcastle. With instructions being barked from the technical area, the North Staffordshire side fought their way to earn a second penalty in front of the Stafford posts. Coopers Park held its breath as the ball was solidly struck but fell just short of the posts to concede the game to a jubilant county town team.