An under resourced Stafford Colts side played a very motivated Newcastle Colts side on Friday evening under the lights on the AGP.

Newcastle started the game very strongly playing some very dynamic and fast paced rugby which Stafford did not seem to have any answer to. As a result, Newcastle ran in 3 unanswered tries in the first half before Stafford responded with a try of their own from number 8 Ben Dodd, picking up from the base of a scrum just outside the 22. First half scoring was completed when Newcastle scored their fourth try.

Stafford made a better start to the second half and scored immediately from the kickoff when George Stevenson touched down following some good handling skills from Stafford after a knock-on by Newcastle. Owen smith continued his rich vein of try scoring, touching down in the right hand corner following a rare period of Stafford pressure on the Newcastle line for his 5 try in 3 games. Newcastle completed the scoring with a late try and the final score was 17 – 27 to Newcastle.

The slow start from Stafford and some sloppy defending early in the game put Stafford on the back foot right from the start of the match. Although there was some improvement in the second half Stafford were not able to get on top of Newcastle and silly mistakes and missed opportunities especially at lineouts close to the Newcastle try line saw them loose what was a winnable match.

Lots of things to work on and think about in training over the coming weeks.

Mark