Stour battle well to beat Waterloo

11:42am Thursday 11th October 2007

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Stourbridge returned to winning ways with an exilherating 38-19 five try home victory against Waterloo at Stourton Park on Saturday.

The visitors exerted pressure right from the kick off and were denied a try by the touch judge as early as the fourth minute. Three minutes later Waterloo failed with a drop goal attempt only for Stourbridge to fumble the ball allowing the visiting Dan Palmer to ground the ball for a gift of a try.

Stour took until the 10th minute to mount their first attack.

A move down the left wing was halted but they quickly swept the ball across the full width of the pitch where they had men lining up to go over and Ally Bressington duly obliged and added a difficult conversion from wide on the right.

The home side began to control the play, playing the game in their opponent's half, but having to wait until the half hour mark to add to their score with a fine try by Stour centre Mark Eastwood.

He burst from Waterloo's 22 metre line breaking two tackles to crash over under the posts.

The visitors came back strongly, pinning Stourbridge in their own territory for the last ten minutes of the first half.

Scores for the visitors came from two penalties by Alex Davies and a well taken drop goal by full back Jon Lowdon giving them 16-14 half-time lead.

Stour came flying out of the blocks in the second period and they regained the lead through a Bressington penalty.

They extended their advantage with an excellent try after full back Tom Jarvis'weaving run set up Ally Muldowney to score under the posts.

Following some exerted pressure which led to one succesful penalty Stour took control for the final 10 minutes.

Following a couple of five metre scrums Rowlands made an excellent pick up to drive over for Stour's bonus point try.

With two minutes left a sweeping Stour move would have led to the try of the match if not for a foot in touch, however a minute later Rod Petty did go over for Stour's fifth try.

Ally Bressington added the conversion to give a convincing 38-19 final score.

Bressington had converted all five tries including two very difficult kicks from wide positions.

A bonus for the Stourbridge fans was the sight of Sam Robinson coming on in the final 15 minutes, his first home appearance for the First XV since last seasons serious injury.

Stourbridge:Jarvis,Bressington, Billig, Eastwood, Summers, Petty, Richardson (Robinson) Sturdy (Rowlands) Gerry (Page) Tideswell, Hughes, Muldowney, White (Witcombe), Knight, Jenner.