Stafford 38 – St. Leonards 8
Stafford development team welcomed local side St Leonards to the county ground as the teams warmed up for the new season. Both sides had a typical pre-season mixture of experienced and young players.
Within 2 minutes of the whistle Stafford grabbed the first points of the game as John Carr wove his way through a bemused defence for a try, Chris Newell adding the conversion. St Leonards carved their way back into the game and seized on a penalty to cut the lead, but they struggled to contain an attacking Stafford XV. Dean Anger exploited a besieged defence to get through for the second try, Chris Newell slotting the conversion. The visitors couldn’t find a response and Vinny Hogan came close to adding a third, but was just stopped on the line. As Stafford maintained the tempo a ferocious assault by the forwards saw Scott Raines stretching across the line to take the third and final try of the half. Stafford went into the half leading by 19 – 3 and looking comfortably in control of the match.
Stafford continued the hard work at the beginning of the second half and drove St Leonards backwards into their own half. Despite some strong defence they couldn’t stop Kevin Peacock from barrelling across the line for Staffords fourth try of the afternoon. Chris Newell was next on the scoreboard as he used his pace to fly across the line straight through the centre of the posts for the fifth of the afternoon and then added to his tally with the conversion. St Leonards continued to fight and got their reward for a good period of play through a consolation try. However it was Stafford that closed the scoring as Dean Anger grabbed his second of the afternoon and Tim Woolman closed the game with the conversion.