Stow on the Wold 17 Hereford 19
Hereford returned to the winning trail with a narrow 17 points to 19 victory over Stow on the Wold. Rough windy weather and a greasy ball did not help either side and it was Stow who managed the conditions better in the first half. They registered three unanswered tries, one of which was converted giving them a good half time lead of 17 points. Again, Hereford showed their resilience and for the first 30 minutes of the second period were in charge, running in three tries and converting two of them. Both teams had further chances, but were unable to add to the scoreline. For the last few minutes Stow threw everything into attack, but the Hereford defence held firm.
“I know it’s a cliche” said Head Coach, Scott Sturdy “But it was a game of two halves at Stow on the Wold today. Hereford did not start the game well. After putting together a few phases, Stow put in some excellent defence forcing a knock on. They switched to attack and before we knew it, they were under the sticks and it’s seven nil. This barrage continued for the first 30 minutes of the half, with Stow playing most of the rugby, attacking on the front foot. Hereford were struggling with the physicality that Stow were bringing to the game and consequently conceded another two tries taking the score to 17 nil. Hereford now missed a few opportunities. A lineout inside the Stow 22 which went awry, a well created opportunity out on the edge where the ball was dropped and knocked on and a penalty missed off the tee. At half time it looks a tall job, 17 points down and we’ve potentially missed out on 14 points of our own which would have made the job much easier.”
“In true Herefordian fashion, the Wyesiders got out there in the second half and showed the dog and the passion we talked about as a team before the game. We showed the ability to take and finish our chances in the second half of the game. A massive shout to our front row players, Lennon Fishlock, Malechi Stuffins, Scotty Robinson and Nathan Boden. The scrum was what got us back into the game, they drew a number of penalties from which two of our tries came directly. It was good to get three tries, good to get to 17 – 19, we missed the chance to get another try and a bonus point and had to defend doggedly for the last five minutes to get us over the line. We look forward to taking a week off and welcoming Moseley Oak to Wyeside on November 4th.”
Hereford kicked off, recovered the ball and set up a promising attack, but a handling error with the greasy ball allowed a Stow player to pick up and run in the opening try, the conversion attempt was wide. Stow had much the better of possession and field position throughout the first half and after 15 minutes doubled their advantage after another Hereford attack broke down. The ball was moved wide and a cross kick into the Hereford red zone saw Stow cross in the corner, an attempt to add the extra points was not successful.
Well into the second quarter, a Hereford pick and go following a scrum was turned over. Stow moved the ball wide and touched down in the corner, this time the conversion was successful. A slick Hereford passing movement showed promise of things to come, but was halted by some good defence short of the line. At the interval Stow enjoyed an advantage of 17 points to nil.
The second half started with some end-to-end play. After five minutes Hereford won a scrum on the Stow goal line and the ball was transferred smartly to Joe Vaughan who dived over in the corner, Iwan Holder made the conversion. Shortly after this, Number 8, Jake Cheshire picked up from the base of another scrum in the Stow red zone to crash over for the try, the conversion attempt drifted wide. This was an easy shot with a 9 iron. The dominant Hereford scrum created the base for a try for Josh Wright, Holder converted to give the Wyesiders a narrow lead at 17 points to 19. With still 20 minutes to go, both sides had further chances, but were unable to capitalise and despite some late Stow pressure the Hereford defence held out to take the win.
The 1870s won a tight game with Stoke Old Boys at Wyeside by 27 points to 20. First team captain Connor Sullivan coming back from injury said “Brilliant performance today. The lads stuck it out for the full 80 which is exactly what we asked for, there is still more room for improvement so let’s get down on Tuesday and keep building.” The scorers in today’s game were tries from Nathan Watkins, Jordon Sheehy & Dan Mills 2 and Jordon Sheehy added 2 conversions and a penalty.
