Stafford 10 – 14 Malvern

Stafford colts took on an undefeated, top of the table Malvern colts side in the North Midlands league on Sunday afternoon. Facing mainly a senior colts Malvern outfit the Stafford side knew this was going to be a tough fixture. Sticking to their game plan of forcing Malvern to play from deep in their own half of the pitch, starving the pacey backs of ball paid dividends as Stafford looked the stronger of both teams throughout the majority of the first half but excellent Malvern defence denied Stafford any score. A penalty could have put points on the board for the home side but flew slightly wide. In the final 5 minutes of the first half a turn over ball for Malvern saw slick, skilful passing through safe hands to break the deadlock for a converted try seeing the visitors go into half time leading 0-7.

Malvern continued to apply pressure right from the second half kick-off putting their quick back line to good use but a sturdy Stafford defence held their own and denied Malvern time and time again. An unfortunate slip by a Stafford player opened a gap in the defence and the visitors exploited this, taking advantage of the space to score another converted try putting them 0-14 up. This galvanised the Stafford lads who dug deep and with a loud home crowd cheering them on they began to take the upper hand in the match forcing Malvern to make mistakes. A good decision to kick to touch from a penalty in the Malvern half allowed Stafford to set up a line out with good attacking options. A strong drive from the pack allowed Gregor ‘George’ Lennon to crash over the try line putting Stafford on the scoreboard and narrowing the score to 5 -14. Momentum now with the home side they fancied their chances of an upset, the strong forwards smashing over the try line only to be denied by the referee as he was unsighted of the grounded ball. A 5 metre scrum led to captain Dan Morrison going over the try line for Stafford putting them right back in the game but once again the conversion went begging, 10-14 the visitors still 4 points ahead. With time quickly running out the Stafford lads threw all they had at Malvern who just managed to hold on to their narrowest win all season. The colts would like to thank the great home crowd for their rousing support throughout the match and also wishing Malvern the best of luck in their National colts quarter final next weekend.