Stoke Old Boys vs Claverdon RFC 10-5 (W)

Rumour has it that after this weekend’s scrappy, anxious victory over Claverdon atleast 7 dry January attempts were failed. If you were on the sidelines….or on the pitch….on Saturday and the teams performance led you directly to the bar to settle the nerves I’d like to sincerely apologise on behalf of the team.

This was not a game for rugby purists. When Andy Whittle can claim this as the worst game of Rugby he’s ever seen you know it’s a baddun. Truth be told, Stoke were very lucky to come away from this game with their unbeaten record still intact.

Pre match, it looked as if Stoke had been gifted the advantage when Claverdon opted to play the game on their 2nd team pitch at the top of mount Everest rather than the swampy 1st team pitch we’d expected. Much firmer under foot, it looked to be a pitch perfect for the Stoke running game.

The warm up actually felt pretty sharp and going into the game I was confident of us doing enough to come away from the game with the bonus point. Maybe it was this confidence that actually ended up being our downfall as the intensity of the warm up was certainly not carried through to the game.

Stoke did start the stronger of the two sides and half way through the first half Sam Watson opened his account with his first try of the season. I’d say that Sam sprinted off from the base of a ruck but if you’ve ever seen Sam play you’ll know he doesn’t sprint. However his pace was still enough to run past two defenders and dot down in the corner. Dave Pretty picking up from where he left off in 2017 by slotting an impressive conversion to add the extra two.

Shortly after this score, the game looked to swing further to Stokes favour when a Claverdon player saw red. I’ll admit to not seeing the incident at all but apparently someone threw a punch at ‘Nicest man in Rugby’ Dave Pretty which to be honest should see the player banned from rugby indefinitely. What on earth could possibly possess a man to throw a punch at Dave, I mean on the pitch were much more understandable candidates for a smack as Ben Griffiths & Jake Sturman…..Unbelievable.

Claverdon ended the half the stronger side though and after an overlap and poor defending, scored in the corner. The fly half unable to add the two to level the scores though and Stoke went into the break with a slight lead.

The second half was as scrappy as they come and offers little to pontificate on. The single highlight being a Stoke penalty that David Pretty duly slotted to reach his 100point milestone.

Claverdon had opportunities to steal the victory too. Firstly, Stoke had the referee to thank when a Claverdon ‘try’ was adjudged to have been grounded after passing the dead ball line and secondly a golden opportunity was wasted as Claverdon seemed to be playing rugby sevens amongst themselves passing back and forth merely 5 metres from the try line in acres of space, Stoke’s desperate scramble defence finally able to close them out.

Tom Elves and Bradley Ellis both saw yellow in the second half for a high tackle and deliberate knock on respectively hindering the side further.

As the referee blew his whistle to finish the game huge sighs of relief were let out amongst the Stoke contingent. Players from 1-22, coaches and supporters knew that we’d got away with this one and our performance would have to vastly improve next week and on into 2018.
A special mention to debutant Danny Ferry who was one ray of light amongst the clouds. Danny performed brilliantly in the loose and the set piece and once he has settled in and learnt the calls will be a valuable asset.

The aforementioned clouds though, were dark and heavy. This wasn’t a Stoke performance to be proud of and we must work quickly to return to the type of performances that saw us establish this lead at the top of the table. Any semblance of positivity was overshadowed by the frustration and infighting running through team. Admittedly guilty of this myself, we need to ensure that we remain united during the tight moments, there will be more, so its imperative we approach them in the correct manner.

Training this week will be huge. This game had ‘Spent the last two weeks eating mince pies’ written all over it and we can’t afford that type of performance to be repeated. Individual performances were poor across the board and the only way you can prove your worth to Elv and this team is to talk to your wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers now and ensure you get yourself down to the club on Tuesday and Thursday to ensure your place in the starting 15.

Next week, still unbeaten Stoke face 2nd placed side and local rivals Coventrians at Albert Gale Field. Hopefully, with the cobwebs blown off and a good week of training behind us a massively improved performance will be on show. I know the boys would appreciate a huge crowd on the sideline to roar us on as we look to increase the gap between the two sides and cement our position at the top of the league.

Up the Stokies!

#Unbeaten #Just