Stafford Colts travelled to Old Yardlians to play a friendly fixture due to the league game against Bournville being cancelled because the home side were unable to field a side.

Stafford started the game well applying pressure to the Yardlians pack and probing against their backline however, some handling errors in midfield prevented an early score. However, Stafford got the opening score after 12 minutes when lineout specialist Oliver Downe stole a Yardlians throw in and the ball was quickly passed into midfield where Dan Poultney broke through the loose midfield tackles and dotted down under the posts, Seb Conaghan adding the conversion. From the re-start a loose clearing kick from Stafford found the dangerous Yardlians center who ran the ball back, shrugged off some weak Stafford tackling and scored under the posts. That score seemed to wake the Stafford side up and they started to put Yardlians under a lot of pressure. A midfield break from Seb Conaghan saw him get into the Yardlians 22 he offloaded to the supporting Archie Bent who was haled down 5 meters short of the try line. The Stafford forwards however, were able to get to the breakdown and Charlie Kirby was on hand to dive over to finish the break off with the score, Seb added the conversion. Stafford then had several more opportunities to score with more midfield breaks from Seb and Dan Poultney but just could not apply the finishing try. Then with Stafford growing more frustrated by not being able to score the points that the constant pressure deserved Yardlians intercepted a pass from 10 meters in front of their own posts and raced away to score wide on the right. Half time score was 12 – 14 to Stafford

Stafford had been on top for large parts of the first half and had not been rewarded with the points they deserved. From the re-start Stafford piled into Yardlians and got to within 10 meters of their line when Seb Conaghan put a grubber kick through but was pushed off the ball, luckily ever alert Archie Bent was in support and dived on the bouncing ball to score under the posts, Seb added the conversion. After that things started to go wrong for Stafford the referee started penalising the forwards at the breakdown and disrupting the flow of the game. Stafford were clearly the better side but where unable to put the game to bed by adding the next score. Then after a succession of penalties on the final play of the game the dangerous Yardlians center eventually tapped and went, evaded several would be Stafford tacklers and scored under the posts. The final score was a win for Stafford 19 – 21

It was a win for Stafford but one which left the players and coaches feeling very disappointed. The team had lost their composure and structure in the second half frustrated by the refereeing decisions and the advice he was getting from the Yardlians coaches. They were unable to go back to doing the basics well as they had done in the first half and silly mistakes crept in. This was a game that Stafford should have won easily even with a team short of a few first team regulars. However there were some good performances from the likes of Seb Conaghan who showed what a threat he is running with the ball and u16’s player Jack Raine who also had some good runs but tackled like a lad twice his size. Pack leader Daniel Clements led from the front and was everywhere at the breakdown as was Dan Cleaver.

Next up is a week off for Easter Sunday followed by the re-arranged home league fixture against Dudley Kingswinford on the 16th April. Enjoy your week of but see you all at training.

Mark