Stour manage to rescue two Bonus Points from their dogged well drilled hosts.

This time last week, hosts, Huddersfield lay 3rd bottom in the league having only 2 wins to their name (Scunthorpe and Preston), 2 drawers and four losses! However, along come Stourbridge and all of a sudden ‘Field produce a Bonus Point performance and rise to 12th place.

After a mid morning pitch inspection on Friday plus due caution on Saturday, the game was declared to be “On”, There was plenty of grass on the playing surface but it was very sticky, underneath. Conditions therefore were ideal from a home advantage perspective, suiting a well drilled Huddersfield pack who made significant territorial gains and scored three Try’s through driving mauls.

Chris Scott was first on the scoreboard with a simple penalty less than 3 minutes into the game. “Field hit back with a Nick Sharpe Try set up by the hosts lively little Scrum Half Joel Hincliffe. Down to 14 players, after Flanker Liam Parfitt was binned, Stour leveled the score when Nigel Mukarati smashed his way over and the conversion by Chris Scott made it 10 apiece.

Notwithstanding the Yellow Card, Huddersfield proved to be the more favoured team in terms of penalty count! The ratio was at a 4:1 level against Stour leading to frustration and occasions where the hapless visitors were ‘marched’ 10 metres for unnecessary wordage towards referee Daniel Woods. Losing so much possession and territory against any side is bound to lead to problems especially given Huddersfield tactics and ever-stickier conditions. Another penalty and driving maul set up Man of the Match, Liam Stapley with a well deserved converted Try taking the hosts into half time and a seven-point lead.

Field’s captain, Richard Piper secured the Bonus Point, again courtesy of his team’s rolling maul with just five minutes of the restart. However, after this score, Stour gained dominance and looked the more promising and better-balanced side. Set piece scrums were very much to the favour of the visitors and, the next half an hour saw a significant shift in their fortunes with two converted tries through Afe Haisila and Jack Lea plus Freddy Morgan’s boot. The first of these came via a penalty lineout and quick hands to Haisila who cut a neat line and his speed did the rest. By now, I am sure that readers will be able to guess how “Bowling Ball” managed his Try!

Just when Stourbridge had got to within striking distance, they conceded a scrum on the half way line. The ball was flicked out left and there appeared to be some clever ‘holding’ which reduced Stour’s defence. This enabled No 14 Kian Stewart enough space to charge over and score with less than 5 minutes left on the clock. If Stourbridge management had packed a kitchen sink, even this would have been thrown into the remainder of the game as the visitors battered the Huddersfield line. They were awarded with a penalty in front of the posts. Believing there was enough time for 2 scores, they opted for a scrum, rather than the safety of a simple penalty. Huddersfield were then hoist on their own petard through their efforts to wind down the clock. By multiple scrum resets referee Woods seemed to recognize the visitors’ dominance and lost patience with their opposition. The end result was Penalty Try immediately followed by a final blast of his whistle.

With ball in hand, the Stour side looked dangerous on the few occasions and opportunities presented. Matt Perks was making a nuisance of himself in the lineouts as well as with ball in hand and the three-quarters were getting quick ball through the hands of Freddy Morgan.

Paucity of possession and the heavy conditions meant that Dan Rundle was unable to extend his record run of Try scoring. However, we suspect that a new record may have been set following a quartet of players from the same family. Can anyone recall a Stour side that could match or beat the “Riley and three Morgan’s” appearances on Saturday?

Another record that may be of interest relates to our Loose Head prop, Mark George who has now kicked the ball two games in a row. Will he go for the hatrick? (Joking aside, he did have an excellent game!)

Stourbridge were fielding a relatively young and inexperienced team but that is not to say that the changes were instrumental in the result. Freddy Morgan has already been mentioned and Arthur Morgan on the right wing was no slouch! Jack Samuel only had a short time to impress and his selection as replacement hooker but appearance on the flank demonstrated the talents available!

These performances do create some difficult decisions in selection by Mitch, Alex Davidson and Rhys Pritchard when Tynedale visit Stourton Park next weekend. We await news on the return of players including Nick Murphy, Joe Collingham, Joe Heatley, Reece Beddows, Noah Heward, Callum Morris and Mike Worthington.