Stafford Colts 43 - Telford Hornets 5

Stafford Colts welcomed Telford Hornets looking to build on their previous weeks success.

Within 2 minutes of kick off Stafford were reduced to 14 men courtesy of a yellow card for a perceived late tackle. This didn’t seem to disrupt the game plan, who responded by moving the ball swiftly through the backs to send winger John Carr over in the corner for their first try of the match. Telford soon struck back and using their one man advantage to roll a maul and force the ball across the line to level the scores. Restored back to a full squad, Stafford started to pile the pressure on and Callum Hoy took full advantage to crash through the visitors defence for an excellent try, which was converted by Scott Robinson. The home side continued to force the visitors onto the back foot and played fast attacking rugby in the Telford half. Some sublime passing peeled the Telford defence open for John Carr to claim his second try of the afternoon with Scott Robinson slotting the conversion over to take Stafford into the half time leading 19 – 5.

Telford started the second half trying to put an irrepressible Stafford side under pressure. The defence absorbed everything and then struck back with sublime handling between forwards and backs, Dan Mills flying across the line to open the scoring for the second half. Stafford were now enjoying the sunny afternoon and support of the large home crowd. The home side started to run the ball from all areas of the field and a breakaway from their own half saw Nathan Ford going over in the corner for another try. With Stafford dominating in all areas, Telford tried to build their own attack, but this left gaps and pouncing on a turnover ball Tom Bell took the ball between the posts for a Captains try, Scott Robinson adding to the tally with a conversion. Telford continued to graft and pressure resulted in defensive errors which firstly saw Stafford reduced to 14 men and then down to 13 for the final 5 minutes of the game as they sought to contain a determined attack by the visitors. Dogged determination by Stafford not to let the visitors score led to a display of great tackling which forced errors from Telford. The home side struck back with an attack from their own half which saw Scott Robinson scoring the final try of the game, adding the conversion for the final points of day.