Stourbridge Lions scored a very well merited victory at home, 16-7, over local rivals Droitwich and move out of the relegation slots, albeit only by 3 points. They are still in a dangerous position going into the Christmas period, especially with DK up next, but this has given a huge boost to the squad and their fans.

The Lions started disastrously, with Droitwich scoring a converted try after only 90 seconds, capitalising on poor tacking by the Lions defence. Soon, however, the powerful home pack, in which Chris Depper and the returning Robbie Hurrell were prominent, set about dismantling the away eight and, 10 minutes in, after a series of penalties and scrums, Depper scored on the Lions right. There was no score for the remainder of the half, though there was constant pressure on the Droitwich defence and much of the action was in the away 22. Good defence and some perplexing decisions kept the score at 7-5 to Droitwich at the half.

The second half scoring began and ended with converted penalties by Ollie Mann, the first coming early for an 8-7 lead to Stour and which nicely book-ended a fine try 25 minutes in by Jess Smith in the left corner after a series of attacks which Droitwich could not stem, even illegally, with one of their players binned for persistent killing of the ball. The home side were in control for most of the half, with occasional and valiant attempts by Droitwich to break the stranglehold of the Lions pack.

This was a fine win against opposition who have often caused the Lions much trouble; the pack was the most powerful seen in Lions colours for some time and was the instrument that set up this victory. Much remains to be done but if this pack can stay together then much can be hoped for in the second half of the season.

by Jon Dews