Stafford travelled to Shrewsbury for the first match of the 2022 league after the matches against Sutton Coldfield and Wolverhampton had been postponed.

Stafford started the match strongly with the forwards dominating the lighter Shrewsbury pack and within 5 minutes Ben Dodd opening the scoring by forcing his way over from close range following a lineout 5 meters from the Shrewsbury line. James Milan added the difficult conversion. After the score Stafford started to lose control of the match as Shrewsbury tried to play a more open and broken-field type of game. This resulted in Shrewsbury running in 4 unconverted tries before Stafford hit back with a try of their own when Dan Poultney finished off a flowing move in the left-hand corner. James Milan added the conversion. With time running out in the first half Stafford were awarded a penalty in the Shrewsbury half which James Milan converted to leave the half time score as 20 – 17 to Shrewsbury.

The second half started with the game very much in the balance and Stafford on the front foot and dominating possession. However, they failed to covert a number of chances when in the Shrewsbury 22 either being held up over the line or knocking the ball on when about to score. Then after a loose kick from Stafford the Shrewsbury number 12 danced round 5 Stafford defenders to score in the left hand corner. Then 5 minutes later exactly the same thing happened this time the Shrewsbury number 12 scoring under the posts. Despite dominating possession in the second half Stafford could not score and the final play of the game saw Stafford being held up over the Shrewsbury line. Final score was 32 – 17 to Shrewsbury.

It was a frustrating afternoon for Stafford because it was a game that they could have and should have won. With a little bit more composure under pressure and a little more team cohesiveness rather than playing as individuals at key moments the points should have been Stafford’s. Instead, they came away from the game with no points but plenty of things to work on.

Hopefully the Colts will learn from this game and start to convert what they are doing in training into what they do on game days.

See you all at training
Mark