Stourbridge Lions finished their season with a flourish at Burntwood RFC, the Lions knew that Burntwood were strong opposition and would love the opportunity to stop the Lions getting promoted.

The first half was a cagey affair with the Lions being kept in their own half by some strong Burntwood defense and a strong wind that blew any Stourbridge kicks back in their faces. Fly Half Tom (Baby) Mitchell came close to securing 3 points for the Lions when his penalty taken from the left of the posts hit the right post and bounced into the arms of a Burntwood player. Burntwood failed to use the strong breeze to their advantage and soon became frustrated at not finding a way through the Lions defense. Their frustration finally boiled over when Lions winger James Mitchell was tackled after the whistle causing fractions between the 2 sides, just as the teams seemed to be calming down the Burntwood 2nd row punched James’ younger brother Tom, to earn himself a yellow card. With a noticeable absence now in the Burntwood pack the Lions started to turn the screw in the scrum. The pressure started to tell as the Lions closed in on the Burntwood line and would have scored had it not been for an infringement by the Burntwood Scrum Half who was awarded his team’s second yellow of the day. Burntwood were now down to 13 men but stayed strong in defense, they managed to clear their lines and the score remained 0-0 at half time.

The Lions started the brighter in the second half and scored the first points of the game after a now characteristic run from utility forward Scott Langdon crashed over the line to score his fourth try in 3 games. The conversion was missed by Baby who was still having to battle the wind, making the score 5-0 to the Stourbridge side. The Lions maintained the pressure and forced a penalty on the 10m line, Centre Harry Wainwright took a quick tap and managed to evade the Burntwood tackles with a series of steps and a turn of pace to place the ball down between the posts. The wind didn’t affect the conversion and the Lions were now 12-0 up. The Lions came close again in the right hand corner before a rare misplaced pass bounced into the Burntwood Scrum Half’s hands allowing him to break well out of his team’s 22 and deep into the Lions’ half. A few phases later Burntwood moved the ball well out to their left winger who scored in the corner, making the score 12-5 to the Lions.
Stourbridge started to re-take the advantage and worked their way back up the pitch and were awarded another penalty, this time Tom Mitchell made no mistake and added the 3 to the Lions score, 15-5 to the Lions. The forwards again started to assert their dominace and following a catch and drive move from a lineout, mauled their way over the line with veteran second row Simon Crouch splashing over the line in the left corner, Lions 20-Burntwood 5. The Lions needed one more try for the bonus point and to finish the season off in the right way, the boys moved the ball up the pitch moving from right the left and back again until the ball was passed to Captain Stuart Doolittle to score in the right hand corner for his 25th try of the season. The final score was 25-5 to the Lions.
This season the Lions have won the Midlands Senior Vase or the second year running and won promotion into Midlands 2 making it the most successful year in the clubs history. The club has grown this year and moving from strength to strength. The players would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has contributed to the Lions success this year as there wouldn’t be an amateur club at Stourbridge without people giving up their time and energy for the club.

Written by Arron ‘The Big Red Dog’ Clifford