STAFFORD 2nd XV vs WOLVERHAMPTON 2nd XV. 27th February 2016.

Stafford 12 – 41 Wolverhampton

Stafford development team welcomed Wolverhampton to the County Ground for a friendly match as a warm up for the England six nations clash against Ireland.

The first ten minutes saw an energetic Wolverhampton performance as they attacked the Stafford XV and kept the home side pinned in their own half. Stafford defended well and started to create some opportunities of their own. The large Stafford pack was dominant in the set piece with a well drilled Wolverhampton holding the upper hand in a clinical running attack. The visitors were the first to put points on the board through a try and scrappy play couldn’t prevent the second from soon following. The Stafford pack continued to destroy the opposition in the scrum but Wolverhampton responded by running the ball from all areas of the pitch. The visitors closed the half with three more tries to give them a sizeable lead. Stafford went into half time trailing by 0 – 29, with the score masking the effort that home side had put in.

The second half saw Stafford fighting their way into the game and keeping Wolverhampton pinned in their own half. The county side team came close on a couple of occasions but even the strongest Wolverhampton defence wasn’t going to deny the heavy forward effort, Andrew Carter eventually taking the try at the bottom of a pile of bodies, Ben Richards adding the conversion. Another two Wolverhampton tries killed off any thoughts of a comeback, but Stafford wouldn’t lie down. The continued fight in the home side began to pay dividends with the visitors struggling to respond and when the ball found its way to Jamie Evans, he showed all of his searing pace to go past four players for the try and the final score of the game.