Walsall Under 14’s V Stafford
Sunday 13th October 2013
In the second of their league matches, Walsall outplayed a strong Stafford team to win by 19 points to 7.
The conditions were horrendous for both teams with driving rain mitigating against free flowing rugby. Walsall kicked off downhill to Stafford but were soon under pressure after some strong Stafford running. Walsall were pinned on their own line for about 5 mins before Stafford surged through for the first try which was converted. From the restart Walsall started to wake up and following a lot of pressure on Stafford through some strong driving forward play, Walsall were on Stafford’s line. From a 5m scrum, Walsall won the ball and Jamie Harding picked up to dive over for a try which was unconverted. Walsall continued to apply pressure and just before half time Sam Tillott popped the ball to Alex Fletcher to crash through the defence to score Walsall second try. This was converted by Jamie Harding to allow Walsall to go in at half time 12 – 7 up.
The second half was as stern test for Walsall as they were playing up the slope but some fine defending from Nico Watkins and Joe Tipson ensured that nothing came through the centre. This aligned with some fine defensive kicking by Rory Rollason kept Stafford at bay. Then from a quickly tapped penalty, Nico Watkins made headway up the left side. The ball was recycled well and passed out to Cameron Kirkbride who showed his pace to cross under the posts for a try converted by Jamie Harding to leave the final score Walsall 19, Stafford 7.