Dudley Kingswinford 17, Stourbridge 71

THE realities of life were never more obvious.

Stourbridge are a side who look every inch favourites to win this division.

Neil Mitchell has blended together a side which has power, pace and precision.

The Dk's have to rebuild again this season - mostly from within their own ranks as they must comply with expectations of being a community club.

Consequently they have promoted several of last season's Colts XV into the senior squad.

Yes, at times it did look like men against boys as Stour repeatedly cut loose with some fabulous running rugby.

But DK's never lost their spirit and the fact they managed to nick a try in the closing stages through Matt Perks showed there is spirit in abundance which will stand them in good stead as the season progresses.

The match as a contest was as good as over within the first 18 minutes as Stour ruthlessly ran in four tries to wrap up the bonus point.

Scrum half Pete White opened Stour's account after just three minutes, while further tries from centres Ben Barkley, Stefan Shillingford and left wing Jamie Hearn practically put the issue out of sight.

DK's responded with a Gareth Bown drop goal before fly half Gary Dipple kept the Stour bandwagon rolling with a fifth try.

Jordan Brookes hit back for DK's with a splendid solo try, picking up at the base of a maul to wriggle his way over underneath the posts for Bown to convert.

But a second, somewhat flukey try for Shillingford put Stour 36-10 in front by half time with Hearn adding three conversions for good measure.

Stour had to wait for 12 minutes before giant second row and skipper Robbie Hurrell went over for the next try before  full back Matt Farrington supplied the next.

Right wing Nathan Bressington supplied the next try before replacements Jordan Page and Danny Thompson got in on the tryscoring act, punctuated by Perks score which Bown improved upon.

In total, Stour crossed for 11 tries to delight their huge army of travelling support, Hearn converting eight of them for a personal points tally of 21 and not a penalty in sight!

  DK's : Smitheman; Jefferson, Bayliss, Lewis (Jones 31), Marshall; Blake, Bown, Brookes (Tompkins 68), Francis (Hudson 40), Greenwood, Blackburn, Murphy, Perks, Parry, Squires, Knight (Bissell)   Stourbridge: Farrington; Bressington (Thompson 68), Shillingford, Barkley, Hearn; Dipple, White (Tu'ipoluto68), Kyle Garner (Sturdy 51), Dale Garner (Page 51), George, Dacres, Hurrell, Mukarati, Uzoigwe, Moore (Depper 65).

  Referee: Marcus Caton   Attendance 971   Man of the match: Nick Murphy (DK's) - you might think a strange choice - but his never say die spirit summed up DK's!