Stourbridge too Strong for Sutton.

Despite a battling performance and scoring with the last play of the game, Sutton were defeated by a well organised physically strong Stourbridge Lions team. Unfortunately,Sutton in their shiny sparkling new shirts, couldn’t mark the debut of a new kit with a victory.
Stourbridge started in dominant fashion, virtually taking root in the Sutton 22 for the first 15 minutes and it was only sterling defence by the whole team that kept the opposition out. Something had to give, it was the Sutton defence as the back of a scrum was found unattended as the Stour back rower strolled over for a converted try. The pattern of play continued in the same vein for the next 15 minutes until Stourbridge took a firm grasp on the match with another converted try, somewhat controversially as a penalty award could well have been overturned as Sutton’s Tom Foulsham was unceremoniously trodden on as he tried to roll away from a ruck.
Finally Sutton gained some ball and played in the Stourbridge 22, probing away for 5 minutes before finally coming away with 5 points as Chris Duckworth got over the line from the base of a ruck. 14-5 to Stourbridge as the try scorer was unsuccessful with the conversion attempt. With the game far more even Sutton needed to get to oranges with no further damage but it was not to be as Stourbridge crossed unchallenged for a soft score and another converted try; 21-5 to the visitors at half time.
The second half started as the first had with Stourbridge dominating territory and possession but being kept at bay by a mixture of overplaying and good defence and tackling from the likes of Rhys Jones, Chris Duckworth, Pete Hall, Alex Shaw, Josh Pugh and Vaughan Brown. They continued to dominate the scrum but Stourbridge had more power, support and cohesion than the home side and despite the best efforts of Sutton they conceded tries at regular intervals. Again, Sutton held out for 15 minutes until the pressure told and Stourbridge finally made their superiority tell as they took a 28-5 lead with a converted try. Sutton breakouts were rare but on 23 minutes Pugh had a sniff of a chance after good work by Hall ,who was probably Sutton’s man of the match ,but it was repelled by Stourbridge.
The score remained unchanged until the last 5 minutes with Steve Marshall and veteran prop Dave Smith helped and abetted by Jonah Falconer making yards but no real impression on the visitors’ defence. Stourbridge took the score out to 40-5 with 2 simple tries taking advantage of a tiring home team who had worked hard for the entire game. However, Sutton had the last word as they showed their desire to play right to the final whistle, when, after good work by Duckworth tight head Scott Toy picked up from the base of a ruck to touch down for Sutton’s second try. And that was it, Stourbridge are a good hard running, well organised team that on the day were better than the men in new green shirts!!!
The game was played in a good spirit and Sutton can take positives from the game into their next game as they battled for 80 minutes working hard for each other throughout.