It was a bright dry day for free flowing rugby at Delves Road. The Bandits have learned that losing a few games has made them pull together and made them stronger which was on display today. With 7 players missing the team adapted very well indeed. A few played out of position and full credit to them they did The Bandits proud.

The game got under way Stafford started strongly and were putting Walsall under extreme pressure. The defence held strong especially with some excellent tackling in the centre of the back line. Max, Oliver and Dmitri held the centre midfield shape well today.
Both teams were physically asking questions about each others defence in the first 10 mins. The forwards worked really well linking with the backs to create phase after phase of support play. This paid off when there was good continuity keeping the ball alive by simple pop passes off the floor. All the hard work paid off when Liam took the ball running at pace and used his good balance to shift from one direction to the other, beating 3 players to score over the try line.

Stafford then applied pressure of their own creating good phase play through the centre of the pitch. Their recycled ball was a little slower but still effective by going over in the left hand corner after great backs play to score a well deserved try.

The Bandits were off again. Building on the back of last try Walsall recycled the ball very well and extremely quickly, before long Walsall were over again with a strong run by Max , showing great balance and sheer determination he broke a few tackles and motored under the posts for the second try. With the regular kicker at Wembley today, our tight head prop fancied a go at converting over the sticks. And well done Fin the the extra points.

Stafford kicked off again high and deep, once again its was collected and run directly forward towards Stafford's half setting up quick phase play for Joe Birch to collect it on the wing and make a lung bursting run of about 40 yards to get held up. fortunately Fin was at hand on Joe's inside and popped it to him and Fin crashed over for his try. Fin tried hard to convert but just missed.

Half Time Walsall 17 Stafford 5

Second half got under way and the pace of the game seemed to increase, Stafford created a lot of in roads towards the Walsall try line but found the defence hard to crack. Walsall had a well worked move that started with Fin going down the left side of the pitch linking with Joe B, who ran strong and with purpose to score under the posts only to have it disallowed as Fins foot was touching the touch line when he went into contact with a Stafford player. Credit to Walsall they took it well and accepted the decision made. This made The Bandits more determined to score again. So off they went on the attack breaking through one tackle and meeting another Stafford defender that took them down, the quick off load was used shipping the ball out for Joe B to have another attempt at scoring. This time successful nearly under the posts. Conversion missed.

Stafford kicked off high and long again, Walsall's forwards rumbled towards the Stafford 10metre line linking nicely and securing good ball off the back of a ruck. Joe B was fed the ball again and made a strong run up the centre field only to be held up after a 25 metre run, Liam shouted for the short off load Joe fed Liam and Liam went under the posts after a powerful run through a strong centre field defence. Fin converted.

Coach Rob Notes
Negatives - at times Walsall's work rate dropped below acceptable at times.
Positives - rucking was quick and purposeful, support play much better, passing better, fast off load at the tackle excellent and tackling very good.

Thank you to Joel, Luke, Max and Dmitri for playing out of their normal positions.

Finally welcome to our new member Alfie Nicholls who played his first game today for the U14's

Try Scorers

Liam 2
Max 1
Fin 1
Joe B 1

Conversions by Fin 2

Stafford to be fair really tested Walsall today, they just lacked a bit of self belief in them selves. with the squad they have I am sure they will develop nicely in the future.

Well played you Bandits !! See you Wednesday.

Walsall RFC

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