Stafford 39 Aston Old Edwardians 7

Aston travelled to Stafford with a side which could be described as " rich with experience". Ideally, the average age of the pack would have been rather lower. Nevertheless, they gave of their best but ended up on the wrong end of the scoresheet.

Chris Cheney and Matt Turner filled in manfully at centre, both playing out of position and Pat Tarpey and Steve Roberts shared duties on one side of the scrum while Zac Loffman played well on the other side.

In the early stages Aston went backwards in the scrum with Micky Watts, consequently, under pressure at the base. The Stafford backs looked dangerous when they had some room and, from a good field position, they notched a penalty goal. Almost immediately they scored a try which looked as if it contained a forward pass and it was easily converted.

Aston made a positive response with a big charge from Michael Tate and, after prolonged forward pressure, Lewis Cooksey claimed a forwards try and Chris Cheney kicked the conversion.

Stafford's backs were in action at the restart and an excellent tackle from Chris Porter stopped the assault. The home forwards got in on the act and drove over the Aston line at the fifth attempt but Aston did well to hold them up. From the resulting scrum, however, Stafford got their reward with a short rumble across the whitewash and the conversion was successful.

They then followed this up with a neatly taken penalty goal before half time to leave the score at 20 points to seven in favour of the hosts.

Aston had done pretty well with their tackling but they could not contain Stafford in the period after the break. The home side began to throw the ball about and stretched Aston. They got over in the left hand corner after sustained attacks and, in short order, had scored again when their forwards launched a series of assaults whilst the backs put the gilt on the gingerbread and showed their ability.

Aston then had a better period but lacked the spark to break the line and, Stafford scored the last try of the game, sustaining a long series of phases until Aston ran out of cover.

Aston did not give up and had a period where they seemed more settled and they finished the game with some determined tackling which did them much credit.