Stafford Colts entertained Walsall Colts at Coopers Park for their latest league fixture looking to continue their good run of form and make it a hattrick of victories.

Both teams started brightly with Walsall showing their intention to spread the ball and run it through their backs to try and stretch Stafford’s defence. Despite some good running rugby, Stafford held too strong and their forwards superiority started to pay dividends.

An injury after a few minutes to Stafford hooker Colton McLaughlin, after the pack won a penalty at the scrum in the Walsall twenty two, led to the early introduction of Tom Kirkby as his replacement. It was Tom that got the first breakthrough of the game after a period of sustained pressure from the Stafford forwards going through the phases to get the first try on the scoreboard after 9 minutes. The try was then successfully converted by James Milan.

A similar passage of forwards play led to a second try for Stafford, with Hugo Sutton going over in the right hand corner after a pop pass from Archie Bent on 12 mins.

At 12 – 0 Stafford should have maintained their pressure but due to brief loss of focus and some good work from Walsall, it was Walsall who managed to win a series of penalties that led to a lineout near the Stafford try line. The resulting rolling maul and recycled ball finally led to Stafford’s defences being breached after 19 minutes, with the resultant try being converted from out wide.

The Walsall try reinvigorated the Stafford team and on 27 minutes Tom got his second try of the game after an initial break from Connor McCulloch, again ably converted by James Milan.

Stafford continued to have chances and would have probably added to their score if the game had not been pulled back due to some ‘handbags’ from a few of the players getting over exuberant. The referee, who had an excellent game throughout, quickly calmed everyone down and play was soon underway for the final couple of minutes, with the score at the end of the first half finishing Stafford 19 Walsall 7.

The second half continued in the same vein with both teams continuing to work hard. Some good decision making saw James Milan get his first try of the match after spotting a gap and picking and going from a ruck on the Walsall 5m line. Connor McCulloch easily slotted home the resultant conversion.

With 15 minutes to go Lucas Till got his first try of the game to seal victory after a strong run to break the Walsall line, again Connor putting away the conversion to make the score 33 – 7.

The game became a little more scrappy for the final quarter as both teams tried to mix up their approach, but this opened the space and led to some good attacking runs from Lucas Till, Eddie Unwin, Owen Smith and continued strong ball carries from the likes of Adam Smith, Ben Dodd and Gurman Seehra to name but a few.

Both teams defences held strong including an excellent last gasp tackle by Connor McCulloch that prevented an almost certain try by Walsall. The final score remaining 33 – 7.

Stafford’s forwards superiority showed for the majority of the game, including three wins against the head in the scrum and this, combined with the strong defensive line provided by the Stafford team as a whole, was the telling difference between the two sides.

Thank you to Walsall for contributing to a great game played in the right spirit, we look forward to visiting you for the return fixture in November.

Stafford look forward to a tough away game against Newport next weekend.