National Colts cup
Luctonions vs Stafford Sunday 27th September
Stafford Colts met at the club on a glorious September Sunday morning for the long journey to deepest Herefordshire. Late call offs meant that we travelled away without a full team so during the long trip the coaches devised a revised plan of action knowing that the opposition would always have one player more than Stafford on the pitch.
After a 2 hour coach journey we arrived to a very warm welcome at a club whose first team is in national league 2. The boys warmed up in the sunshine and played the match on the first team pitch watched by a large crowd. Luctonions kick off and the Stafford ran it straight back at them unfortunately a pass was incepted and Stafford were a convert try down within the first minute of the game.
From the restart the Stafford forwards Ben and Sam Chatfield collected the ball and ran down field cutting through Luctonions and were rewarded with a penalty which unfortunately was missed. The 22 drop out was collected by Matt Leese and at the resultant break down the ball came out of the side of the ruck and the Luctonions winger ran from his 22 to score under the posts on 12 minutes 14-0
Stafford kick off and this time Luctonions ran at Stafford and captain Dan Morrison made a big tackle but the offload was good and the winger scored in the corner. The try was not converted. 19-0 (14 minutes). Dan Morrison left the field following the tackle and therefore Luctonions also had to take a man off to ensure they only had a one player advantage.
Re full Stafford then had a period of dominance with Dan watts and Jordan Talbot, doing a lot of work at the breakdown and were camped in the Luctonions half for 10 minutes. The lineout was working well with Ed Leese taking good ball at 2 or at the back of the line. And following several drives a Luctonions player was yellow carded for coming in from the side of a ruck in the red zone. Toran Spellman playing at scrum half took a quick penalty and gave an inside ball to Will Turner who drove over and scored a try just to the left of the goal posts which he then converted. 19-7 -25 minutes.
The effort of playing with one less player against a very big team Lutonions team who had fresh legs took its toll as they ran in two more converted tries on 26 and 28 minutes. Stafford then regained the momentum and the sides were evenly matched until half time.

Elliot Hunter started the 2nd half with a good drop kick and as Stafford challenged for the ball it was knocked on. From the resulting scrum Luctonions passed the ball wide following good support play and they scored out wide but the conversion was missed 38-7 (37 minutes). Stafford gathered the kick off and pushed luctonions back with some good forward play. From one breakdown Turner saw space on the wing and chipped over for Matt Leese to chase at the resulting breakdown matt had some attention to a knee injury.
Luctonions then ran at Stafford and following a steal at the breakdown the ball was passed wide for Oliie Greensill to run in a try on the wing. The conversion was missed 38-12 (50 minutes). Due to injuries to Matt Leese and Dan Watts Stafford ceded the win to Luctonions.
Following this Six Luctonions players joined those Stafford player left on the pitch and a 15 –aside game was played for the remaining 20 minutes. This was a highly enjoyable fixture and was a credit to both teams who played the game in the right spirit.
The Luctonions officials congratulated all of the Stafford boys on the way they stuck to their task and praised them on their skill and tenacity against a big well drilled Luctonions team who we wish the best of luck in the next round.