Stafford u16 roses travelled to Barker Butts for a friendly fixture on Sunday. The journey took twice as long as it should have done dues to traffic issues on the M6 and the team did not arrive until 1.30 for a scheduled 2pm kick off.

So after a shortened warm up the game kicked off and right from the start the Stafford girls were under pressure from the big BB forwards. They struggled to get any possession in the opposition half as they did not have a recognised kicker in the team and were therefore resorting to running what possession they had from inside their own 22. Eventually BB scored the opening try after 9 minutes and then a converted try after 17 minutes. Stafford were then reduced to 14 players where Peggy was forced off with an arm injury trying to prevent BB scoring their 3rd try. Then when BB spilled the ball forward from the restart Tori picked the loose ball and scampered over for a Stafford try. With time running out in the half and BB once again camped just outside of the Stafford 22 a rare missed tackle from Stafford saw the BB prop burst free and touch down for the final try of the first half. Half time score was 24 -5.

In the second half it was more or less a repeat of the opening first half. The strong running BB forwards asking questions of the Stafford tacklers and keeping the away side pinned in their own half. Then after 8 minutes BB broke down the valiant Stafford defence to score their first try of the 2nd half. BB then scored another quick-fire couple of tries scored 3 quick tries to take the home sides score up to 41. Stafford then responded with two quick fire breakaway tries of their own as Tori exploited some holes in the tiring BB team running from her own half to score under the posts, converting one of the tries. The game ended when BB scored the final try of the game in the left hand corner against a tiring Stafford defence. Final score was 46 – 17 to Barker Butts.

Stafford had played very well with excellent rucking and counter rucking, the tackling was very good as well. However, they were unable to play the game in the right areas of the pitch always being forced to attack from inside their own half instead of the oppositions. Tori got the oppositions man of the match as well as the coaches player for what was another outstanding performance. The players from Wolverhampton came along again to bolster the Stafford numbers and all three played very well but Nyrah was exception in her tackling display. It was a tough game for the Stafford girls sustaining a few knocks and bruises but hopefully nothing too serious.

See you all at training on Tuesday.
Mark