Stafford Colts v Luctonians 10/04/2022

Stafford Colts welcomed a very strong Luctonians colts side to the county ground for a friendly fixture.

The first half was a very evenly contested affair with Stafford dealing well with an excellent Luctonian back line and the strong Stafford pack making the Luctonian forwards work hard. Stafford had a couple of great breaks and chances to open the scoring but just failed to finish the moves off and some excellent last ditch tackling from the Ollie and Tom Croft, playing up from the u16’s prevented Luctonians from opening the scoring. Eventually however, the Luctonian backs slipped through with a late offload out of a tackle which saw them score under the posts. Stafford then responded with a fluent Stafford breakout move of their own from half way which was held up illegally just short of the try line and from the resulting penalty Ben Dodd was able to force his way over, Will Roue added an excellent conversion. An exhausting first half finished 7 – 7.

The second half was again a tight affair for the first 25 minutes with Luctonians adding to their score after 13 minutes but Stafford standing up to the pressure and threatening to score another try of their own. However, a loose pass whilst threatening the Luctonian line saw the away sides fullback pick up the loose ball and evade numerous Stafford tacklers to score an excellent breakout try. That try seemed to break the spirit of a tiring Stafford side who conceded a fourth Luctonian try in the last 2 minutes. Final score was 7 – 24 to Luctonians.

The final score did not reflect how close the game had been, something that all the coaches agreed upon. After the game the Stafford players felt that they could have won the game if only a couple of phases of play had gone their way when threatening the Luctonian line. There were some excellent performances from the Stafford team, Will Roue showed what a class player he is, Dan Cleaver was immense in the back row, Finley Evans had his best game since returning from injury and Tom and Ollie Croft showed how exciting next years Colts back line will be. It was a tough game for Stafford against a team who are top of the league above but they stuck to their task well for the majority of the game just losing it in the final 10 minutes as the energy levels dropped off.

Well done lads enjoy your Sunday off next week and see you all on the bus to Dudley K on the 24th !!

Mark