Stafford Colts should have concluded their league campaign with a home fixture against Droitwich. However, Droitwich were unable to field a team so Stafford welcomed Worcester Colts to the County Ground for a friendly fixture instead.

Stafford got off to an electric start scoring direct from the kick off when Worcester failed to field the ball, gifting the turnover to Stafford and hooker Colton McLaughlin stormed over the line from 15 meters out, Seb Conaghan added the conversion. Stafford kept the pressure on Worcester who were forced to kick from deep in their own half to try and gain field position, but Stafford kept coming back at them. Stafford score their 2nd try after 15 minutes when a midfield kick was fielded by Seb Conaghan who went on a mazy run, beating the Worcester defenders and nearly making it to the line but was able to pop the ball to his supporting scrum half Archie Bent who touched down under the posts, Seb added the conversion.

Worcester then started to come back into the game and prevent Stafford from adding to their score and the Stafford side grew more and more frustrated. Some refereeing decision then started to go against them and a series of comments from the players saw them marched back an extra 10 meters on several occasions. Then finally the referee ran out of patience and showed captain Hugo Sutton a yellow card. Now against 14 men Worcester upped their game and scored an unconverted try after 32 minutes. Then with time running out in the first half Stafford lost the ball at an attacking 10m lineout and then conceded numerous penalties which saw Worcester to with 5m of the Stafford try line. They then moved the ball wide from another penalty and scored the final try of the half. Half time score was 14 – 12 to the home side.
Worcester came out for the 2nd half fired up because of the come back at the end of the first half and added a converted try after only 3 minutes of the second half. That score seemed to wake Stafford up and they finally stopped conceding penalties at the breakdown. They regained the lead after 7 minutes when a strong forward drive saw the back row bounce out to the right and Charlie Kirby forced his was over, despite having Ollie Downe in space on this right who is desperate to score his first try of the season, Seb added to difficult conversion.

Stafford were now back in control of the game and a kick in behind the Worcester defence saw Gurman Seehra gather the ball and dive over to score. The next Stafford score came when a Worcester knock-on in midfield saw the ball passed quickly to the wing and Aiden Barker screamed in from 50 meters out. Worcester managed to score a fourth try of their own but it was completely against the run of play against a confident Stafford side. With Stafford ringing the changes to give everyone some game time Seb Conaghan when on another mazy run through the Worcester midfield and this time he was able to get the try that his play had deserved. The final score was 36 – 26 to Stafford.

It was great to be able to end the season with a game and a win but a bit disappointing that the final league game of the season was a home walk over. Thankfully Worcester agreed to travel up for their final game of the season having also been awarded an away walk over in their final league game. Stafford had played well and apart from a bit of ill-discipline towards the end of the first half had never looked like loosing the game. Seb Conaghan played very well as did all the backs who showed real attacking flare and bags of pace. The Stafford forwards were strong and Gurman Seehra had an outstanding game nearly scoring from 60 meters out but loosing his boot in the run slowed him down slightly and he was caught by a Worcester defender 10 meters out.

That was the last Sunday game of the season which saw Stafford Colts crowned champions of North Midlands Colts Division 2 with 74 points. Next up is a Thursday night fixture away against Walsall in the Fred Rowley trophy and hopefully a last game of the season next Tuesday in the final.

Mark