Stafford Colts travelled to Worcester to play their league fixture on a beautiful sunny day perfect for running rugby.

Stafford were fast out of the blocks and had Worcester on the back foot defending on their 5 meter line but they missed the opportunity to score down the blind side of a ruck and where held up over the line. Then a series of strange refereeing decisions saw Stafford concede numerous penalties and loose the momentum they had gained at the start of the match. Worcester took advantage and scored the opening try after 9 minutes. Stafford tried to re-establish control but handling errors kept stopping the Stafford momentum. However, after 17 minutes Stafford went in front when No 8 Charlie Kirby forced his way over following a scrum close to the Worcester line and Seb Conaghan added the conversion. From the re-start Stafford eventually cleared their lines only for the Worcester fullback, receiving the ball on the half way line, to evade several Stafford defenders to score a try under the Stafford posts.

After the re-start Stafford put pressure on the Worcester defence and established control in the opposition 22. Following an infringement in front of the Worcester posts Seb kicked a simple penalty to keep the Stafford score ticking along. Stafford were having the better of the game now but were struggling to make the killer pass to put someone through a gap and into the opposition backfield. Then Seb decided to change tactic and chipped a ball behind the Worcester defence the bouncing ball caused panic and Fin Osmant and Charlie Kirby simultaneously touched the ball down, Fin claiming the try after a game of rock paper scissors after the match. Half time score saw Stafford leading 12 – 15.

The second half continued in similar fashion to the first with mistakes from Stafford taking away attacking momentum. Several missed kick to touch invited the Worcester back line to run at Stafford from deep. Then from a scrum 15 meters out Stafford decided to run it from deep however, a forward pass gifted possession back to Worcester. From the scum that followed Worcester passed the ball wide to score in the left-hand corner. The expansive game that Stafford were trying to play was not working and just seemed to gift possession back to the opposition at key times. Eventually Stafford established a period of field possession in the Worcester 22 and following a series of lineouts were able to convert one of their dominant driving mauls into points with Charlie Kirby touching down. With time running out Stafford were pushing for the bonus point try ignoring the simple penalty in front of the Worcester posts, quite a risky strategy, but they were unable to cross the Worcester line and the match finished with a score line of 17 – 20 to Stafford.

It was a game that Stafford made hard work of winning, they gifted Worcester points and let some dubious refereeing decisions upset their rhythm rather than playing their usual way. Stafford lost influential back rower DJ Clements to a rib injury late on which compounded the down beat mood after the game even though they had won. There are things to work on in training including defending driving mauls and securing the ball correctly in attacking mauls but the unbeaten league run continues. Next weekend there is no fixture on the Sunday and next time out is the away league fixture against Dudley K on the 30th October.

Well done boys, a win is a win but things to think about and work on, See you all at training
Mark