Stour grind out win over ‘hoppers

Results elsewhere worked in their favour though and they move up to 4th in National 2 North.

As promised the Stour teamsheet showed multiple changes from the settled lineup of the previous few weeks. Jack Lea and Stef Thorp started in the front row with Chad Thorne covering from the bench. Nick Murphy (lock) and Liam Munro (flanker) also started in the pack. The reshuffle in the backs saw Joe Heatley make just his 2nd start at scrum half partnering Chris Scott at halfback. Nathan Tilsley slotted in at centre for his debut, with the versatile Chris Easton starting on the left wing.

Stour recovered the kick-off and started to work through the phases, securing lineout throw in the Preston midfield. A planned 1st phase move saw Nigel Mukarati feed Munro who burst through a gap in the visitors’ line. He was chased down short of the tryline but the ball was worked quickly left where Scott and Mukarati combined to work Easton over in the corner. 3min 5-0.

A lineout turnover saw Stour back in attack, a long-range penalty spurned for a kick to touch and they ground a maul deep into Preston’s 22. Captain Ciaran Moore barged off some ineffective tackling to score, Scott converting. 11min 12-0.

Errors prevented either side mounting much pressure, Stour losing Mukarati to the sin bin for a mistimed tackle, though fullback Lewis Allen pushed his penalty kick wide. Heatley took a quick tap in the Stour 22 and hared off into the visitors’ half where he found centre James Otutaha on his shoulder, but with the defences all at sea a stray pass saw the chance go begging. The game became stop-start with frequent blasts of referee Ben Russell’s whistle, but Preston were unable to breach Stour’s 14-man defences. With Mukarati returned Stour were able to exert pressure again, another Heatley break from his own half unrewarded when the cover managed to defuse his chip ahead. But they built the phases patiently from the drop-out, working Moore across the tryline again from short range. Half time 19-0.

A promising Stour attack stalled early in the 2nd half due to a holding-on offence, Preston launched an attack of their own and Stour old boy Chris Roddy managed to work winger Tom Hurst through a gap. He drew the cover and fed Cameron (son of Jason) Robinson who raced over to score. 42min 19-5. Growing in confidence the visitors upped the workrate and started to successfully disrupt Stour’s attacks. A Chris Scott penalty attempt flew wide and the subs benches started to empty. A rash of penalty awards saw Preston finally able to mount sustained pressure on the Stour line, this looked to have ended with a held-up maul but the quick reactions of flanker Rob Bramhall saw the ball stolen from the base of the Stour scrum for an opportunist try. 60min 19-10.

Back came Stour, a break by Tilsley working Easton over in the corner but the nearby AR advised that the ball had been lost forward. Stour drove Preston off the resulting 5m scrum but Moore’s attempted short-range drive also ended with a knock-on call. As the clock ran down Stour secured two penalties which were kicked to the corner in pursuit of a bonus point but the Preston defences held them out. Full time 19-10.

This Saturday Stour travel to Otley, 2pm ko. Stourbridge Lions face a crunch top-of-the table clash with Shirley-based Camp Hill.