Stafford Colts v Ledbury Colts - 22.10.23

Stafford Colts bounced back from last week’s league defeat in style with an emphatic nine try league victory.
It took no time at all to get the scores moving with a couple of tries from an unfamiliar name on the score sheet. First Joben Corcoran charged down an attempted defensive kick and won the foot race to open the scoring in less than a minute. And he was to pop up again; crashing over after Sam Edwards and captain DJ Clements just couldn’t quite get over the line. Seb Conaghan missed the first, but bagged the second, conversion.
Ledbury hit back when a series of penalties inside the final 10 metres eventually paid off and they added the conversion for good measure.
Stafford were next to score and following one of many powerful runs from prop Callum Stanley, the ball was recycled through the hands of the backs with Jack Raine finishing for the first of his three tries. Conaghan kicked the extra two points.
Raine was to double his tally just before the half hour. Conaghan broke away and used some footballing skills to cause havoc in the defence. After Marley Thomas fell inches short of the line, reliable centre Raine went over from close in - with Conaghan then making it 26-7.
Before half time Stafford went down to 14 after Stanley was shown yellow as they tried to repel several Ledbury attacks. And while he was off the field a line-out, followed by a driving maul, brought the visitors their second try.
The visitors should not have been able to get so near, with Stafford taking a stronghold for large sections of the opening 35 minutes - Ethan Hollins, Ben Thomas and Finn Osmant with ball in, and out of hand, showing that last week’s performance was a blip in what has been a great start in the top division. It was also an improved showing from the pack who dominated the scrums and competed well at the line outs.
So if the coaching staff were frustrated at the way the Colts had let their opponents back in the match, they would have been furious within a minute of the restart as Ledbury took advantage of missed tackles to narrow the scores out wide.
That may have been the wake up call the Colts required as they soon put to bed any chance of the visitors getting back in the game with a five-try burst.
Stanley, restored to the field, went on another charge. It was handed to Finn Osmant and the centre’s powerful run took defenders out the game before it came back to the hands of Stanley to crash over in familiar style - with an easy conversion to follow.
Then a well worked backs move saw Olly Croft eat up the middle ground until he was halted. The ball was recycled to Conaghan who weaved through the visitors to score a try that he could not convert.
In the 50th minute Raine completed his hat-trick when he ran a delicious line from another pre-planned miss move and nobody was going to stop the flying centre as he sprinted half the pitch, touching down between the posts - giving Conaghan an easy extra two points.
Moments later Conaghan kicked a straightforward penalty. Although it was the play leading up to it that showed the wonderful all-round ability of this Colts team. It started with Charlie Kirby in his own half and was off-loaded or passed, it seemed, through nearly every player in the team and a try would have been a deserved outcome.
But the home side didn’t have to wait long for an eighth try. Another powerful Osmant run gave Conaghan a kick and chase. The ball was collected by the opposing scrum half - but with Stafford bearing down on him, he held on too long. From a quick Edward’s penalty, Matt Turner charged through. The prop tried to convert his own try but sent the kick wide.
Stafford may have saved the best to last. Yet again a brilliantly worked training ground move, using the menacing Osmant this time as a dummy, found its way from the half backs along the line and then, via a cheeky offload from Edwards, to Marley Thomas who scored in the corner. Conaghan missed the conversion - but it mattered not with the rout already complete.

Coaches Comments:
After the deception in attitudes of last week’s away defeat at Silhillians; we started the week with a collective brainstorming (what do we stop, what do we carry on doing and what do we start doing ). Both players and coaches vented their frustrations, expectations, satisfactions and this allowed us to have 2 of the best training sessions of the season so far.
The most pleasing of today was not only to see the team play with the right attitude but to see them implement things we either discussed or practiced this week, offloading in the tackle and having support runners on shoulders for examples.
That was a very well managed performance by the whole squad, and it was great to be able to conclude the week in such manner. We now have a break from league rugby for a few weeks with some senior lads being called up for county. We have several friendlies lined up and it will be the opportunity to offer game time to those players not making it into the League Squad yet.