Bridgnorth V Stags - By Josh Leonard

It was another dry day in the glorious midlands and another trip for the fun bus, that like Sando, somehow keeps going. Also like Sando, I’m pretty sure the fun bus runs on a mix of wine and whiskey. Drama began the day with Steve Harvey's entire key set disappearing!! Once everyone had finally arrived, the stags began the journey from the ‘club house’ to the pitch, a journey that is more or less comparable to that of Frodo from the Shire to Mount Doom.

There was a steady start to the game, no side giving away too much and defenders proving to be fairly solid. Steve Harvey, full of anger, throwing caution to the wind and taking heads with some big hits. The stale mate changed with a line out in the stags half, a maul was set up and moving forward but it began to break down. At this point Leonard took the ball from the back and after a short carry that looked to draw at least 3 players released a beautiful flat pass to an equally beautiful/sensual line from George Marsden. Fluffy G sliced the Bridgnorth defence like a very hot knife through through very soft butter. From this point it was a 60m foot race and Fluffy galloped his way all the way to the try line for the first of the day. Surprisingly, unconverted by the usual steady foot of Bully, we put this down to still being in awe of the 65m Bolt like dash from George.

The pressure continued from the stags with more solid defence and continuous line out pressure from both Adam Jordan and Guy Dowell stealing Bridgnorth throw ins. This led down to the Stags setting up camp again on the opposite 5m, Stags have been guilty of not executing well enough in the red zone of recent weeks but that was not the case today. A mix of Patience and big carries led eventually to Cameron Coates, side stepping, pirouetting and wriggling his way over the line. Bully resumed normal service and slotted the extras.

Bridgnorth returned with some pressure in the stags half but came to nothing when the Stags forwards forced a pen. An excellent kick from Cam saw the stags get a line out on the 5m and the forwards powered over for one of many maul tries we’ve seen this year, Dale Bowyer getting the touch down. Bully from a tight angle bisects the uprights for a humble round of applause from the crowd.

A bit of too and fro in the middle of the park proceeded, Bridgnorth close to finding some space on the outside. Stags regain possession after a while just inside the half and with a favourable bounce out Cameron gave the stags another 5m line out from a sumptuous 50:22, excellent use of the new rules. This time pressure was built in the maul but didn’t give the same result. Stags get a pen and quickly taken by Leonard forcing Bridgnorth to tackle inside the 10 and another advantage. Pressure continued through a number of pick and goes/snipes, eventually with todays birthday boy, Ricky Moran, having the ball slapped out of his hands in the process of scoring leading to a penalty try to the stags.

Unfortunately, The game then took a lengthy pause to deal with potential serious injury to their prop following the scrum and the half ended five minuets short. Second half resumed only for a short period with Bridgnorth finding a gap, and with some good passing got their first and only score for the day. In the process their captain was still down for another potential serious injury. The game never resumed from this point and the result remained 26-7 to the Stags.

Frustrating to travel the distance only to play just under 40 mins of rugby but the stags are back to winning ways.

Cameron Coates looked very good on the day but star of the day goes to Steve Harvey

Up the stags

Josh Leonard