1st XV Match Report - 23rd Oct 2021

David Daniels
SCRFC 1st XV Team Manger

Stratford-upon-Avon 41pts v Sutton Coldfield 25pts.

Last Saturday Sutton travelled to Shakespear's birthplace and the story of the game followed what is becoming an all too familiar pattern with Sutton making a strong and promising start to dominate play in the Stratford half during the first quarter of the game taking a deserved 3-0 lead after just 6 minutes of play but then in spite of good positive play Sutton were unable to take their chances and on 20 minutes the home side broke the stranglehold and took play deep into the Sutton half forming a ruck on their right just inside the Sutton 22, at which point Sutton were penalised for hands in the ruck.

Playing advantage Stratford sent a canny crossfield kick high to their left wing where winger Charlie Powell skilfully gathered the ball ahead of the Sutton defenders and scored a well executed opening try. The touchline conversion drifted wide but Stratford took a 5-3 lead into the second quarter of the game and although the Sutton pack competed well at the scrums and lineouts Stratford started to exert more control over the proceedings and 30 minutes into the game when Sutton were penalised for not releasing in midfield the ball was kicked to the corner and the Stratford pack executed a catch and drive manoeuver for flanker Dan Dunmore to claim their second try, which again went unconverted but the lead was stretched to 10-3 with 10 minutes to play to the break.

Sutton settled to their task but increasing pressure and errors led to frustration and a number of penalties were conceded, so much so that after consecutive penalties Sutton received a team yellow card for repeat offences and Stratford took advantage of the extra man up to the break scoring two more tries, the first was a forward drive following a quickly taken tap penalty close to the visitors tryline scored by prop Geoff Dyson and the second came straight from the restart following a break down the Stratford left wing setting up a second try for winger Charlie Powell, who scored to the left of the posts. Fly half Nathan Geekie landed both conversions to give the home side a comfortable 24-3 lead at half time.

Continuing where they left off at the end of the first half Stratford extended their lead by scoring a 5th try after Sutton lost the ball in midfield and Stratford gathered and with quick hands fed the ball across the Sutton 22 for right wing Dan Whitby to race into space and score to the right of the posts. Nathan Geekie added the conversion to extend the lead to 31-3 with just 4 minutes of the second half played.

Down but not out Sutton faced up to the daunting deficit and rallied briefly 5 minutes later when the ball was kicked in field from an attack on the Sutton left wing and the bouncing ball eluded all but Sutton 2nd row Harry Moxon, who managed to control the ball and claim the try just to the right of the posts, which brought the score to 31-8 but on a luckless day for the Sutton side from the conversion the ball hit the near upright and bounced back into play... and then Sutton's misfortunes continued at pace when direct from the restart Stratford made a break down the left wing then fed the ball infield to be scrambled over the line for a converted try and a score line of 36-8 with 10 minutes of the second half played and then midway through the second half more misery for Sutton came when Stratford attacked down the left before feeding the ball from left to right creating an overlap for right wing Dan Whitby to race in for his second try of the day and Nathan Greekie added the conversion to take the score to 41-8 with 20 minutes left to play.

Determined to salvage something from the game Sutton stepped up their game and with 10 minutes left on the clock, a charateristic charging run by outside centre Will Mitchell took him up to the Stratford try line and an overhead off load was caught by winger George Creed, who went over to claim the try. With time running out Sutton were keen to get on with the game so fly half Ben Morgan took a hasty drop kick which flew wide but with the ball back in play from the restart Sutton set up an attack down their right wing before feeding the back infield going right to left and fleet footed winger George Creed, was on the end of the line to race into the corner to score his second try of the day. Again conscious of the time with 5 minutes left on the clock and a 4th try plus bonus point on offer the hasty attempted drop goal conversion flew wide but again with the ball back in play from the restart Sutton were back on the attack chasing the bonus point and when the hosts conceded a penalty in midfield in the closing minutes Sutton kicked into the right corner for a lineout 5 metres out. Directed by skipper Dean Ginn at hooker the lineout was executed perfectly and as the follow-up drive went over the try line Sutton no8 Luke Stewart with his trademark positivity, extracted himself from the maul to claim the all important 4th try and the bonus point, on the stroke of fulltime. With the time pressure removed Sutton fly half Ben Morgan lined up the conversion perfectly to close the game at 41-25 with the last kick of a testing contest.

Once again Sutton played well at times but brief lapses in defence and the wrong options in attack at key points is causing frustration and disappointment. However, they are developing as a squad and not far short of the finished product but at this level of rugby as testified in recent seasons mistakes and lapses however brief are punished severely by opposing teams.

This weekend Sutton return to Friday evening rugby under floodlights when they travel to Worcester RFC for the next round in their Midlands 1 West league campaign, looking to learn from the experience of recent games, which have started and finished strong but flopped in the middle. KO 7.30pm.

Sutton other team results & match summary:

Bromsgrove RFC 7pts v Sutton 2nd XV 48pts.

Just as the Sutton 1st XV are struggling to find their winning formula the Sutton second string are going from strength to strength as demonstrated by their unbeaten run in the league this season, with another fine victory last Saturday, this time away at Bromsgrove RFC.

The Sutton pack dominated the set pieces in both scrums and lineouts with the backs showing electric pace with ball in hand leading to a try count of 8 tries to Sutton, whilst restricting their hosts to a single converted try in the 48-7 victory.

Leading the Sutton try count was Will Ballion with a brace, followed by Matt Campbell, Paul Spiby, showing he still has the magic, Jamie James, Dan Jones, Raheel Hussain, maintaining his excellent scoring record and special mention for Adam McNally, who scored a try on debut for the club and added 4 conversions - well done Adam, a great start to your Sutton career.

Once again the Sutton team was organised and led to victory by club stalwart Steve Marshall.