Stafford travelled to high flying Burntwood for the final away game of November. The hosts hadn’t dropped a game all season, holding an impressive eight wins out of eight for a solid second place in the league. The visitors were working their way through an injury hit squad following the physical encounter with Newcastle the previous week. In true Stafford style a number of players pulled on the shirt to bolster the squad seeing first team league debuts for Josh Bayley, Lochlan Stewart and Matt Phillips. These were supplemented by season returns for Tom Westwell, Ollie Greatholder and Shawn Hunt. All of whom mixed in with the other twelve 1st XV stalwarts to form the visiting squad.

The first ten minutes was a slightly scrappy affair as both teams sized each other in greasy conditions. With their first real run of the match, Burntwood pushed the button and the Sportsway XV took their first try of the afternoon. Getting into their groove, the hosts made a series of punishing carries to prise open some slight holes and two more tries soon followed. Burntwood were still having to work hard and a scrapping Stafford kept scrambling back into the encounter. The hosts stretched the hard-working visitors for the fourth and bonus point try to put the five league points in the bag. Indiscipline saw the home side incurring a yellow card and they were reduced to a temporary fourteen. With a renewed vigour it was Safford with all of the momentum and Burntwood were forced into defence. A couple of attacks were repelled before Adam Greaves crashed across to put the points on the board, converted by Alex Rock. Burntwood responded with two more tries before the continuing hard work from the County Town team wrestled back control. Stafford tore through the rolling defence and great footwork from Alex Rock carried him across the line for a try which he then converted. Stafford went into half time trailing 40-14 but tiringly working away against the second in the league opposition.

The rain finally relented to open the second half and the sun was just hidden behind some grey clouds. Stafford emptied their bench to bring on some fresh legs and mix up the plays on the pitch. A Burntwood penalty try saw the visitors penalised and they were temporarily reduced to a battling fourteen on the field. Two more Sportsway tries followed before the Blackberry Lane XV were restored to a full team. Stafford continued to stand tall and kept their heads high as they fought back to contain the Burntwood display. As legs and bodies tired, the hosts ran in a final three tries before the referee’s whistle closed off a long afternoon of rugby.

Next 1st XV Match: Saturday 30th November vs Telford Hornets XV, Home. K.O. 14:15.