Sat 4 Oct 2025
Stratford 28-5 Old Halesonians
Back at home, Stratford welcomed Old Halesonians (Hales) to Pearcecroft, thankfully mostly after Storm Amy. Stratford got the ball straight from the off as the Hales kick-off went straight out with some help from the wind.
A quick tap at the scrum allowed Stratford to move into the Hales half and start to assert some pressure. A few more infringements and some strong running enabled Stratford’s pack to start working the defensive line. On a few occasions Hales survived, awarded a penalty and benefitting from a missed kick to touch. Hales had some big runners of their own but no attacks made it past the Stratford 10m line.
Stratford’s pressure afforded them a line out 5m from the Hales line and they took it down and drove forward, eventually releasing the ball out to the backs after a snipe and a further phase. Fly half Gwil Davis cut into the line but was stopped just in front of the posts. A final phase saw Laurence Birch come round the corner onto the ball and from the resulting ruck, fullback Nathan Geekie took the ball, on a fading wide line, eased between the final two defenders with one cautious of his passing option out to the wing. Inside centre Dan Whitby added the extras to make it 7-0.
Having started to get more of the ball Hales broke into the Stratford 22 multiple times working the Stratford defence. They had two lineouts but failed to make them count with Stratford winning a turnover penalty and a knock on also denying them.
A stable 5m scrum allowed a long clearing kick by Stratford’s Davis but the Hales 10 gathered and ran the ball back. Dipping slightly, whilst making a bending run to avoid the advancing defender, Michael Dawes, resulted in a seatbelt tackle and saw Dawes sent to the sin bin. Hales seized this opportunity to hit back with a try of their own. They kicked the penalty for a right-side line out, took it cleanly and worked their way left, eventually going in on the far side. The conversion was missed from the tight angle, and it was 7-5 with most of the sin bin period still to come.
Having suffered two quick setbacks, Stratford thankfully held Hales out for the rest of the sin bin period and the momentum swung back their way once Dawes re-entered the game. Testing a tiring Hales defence, Stratford broke the whitewash by way of a penalty try just before the halftime whistle. Having got right to the Hales try line, working the ball right as Stratford had with their first try, a Hales defender stuck out a hand and knocked the ball down, resulting in a penalty try and a yellow card leaving and the halftime score 14-5.
The second half was mainly uneventful, with many delays to the game: Hales players carrying injuries so receiving multiple treatments; having a forward sent off after 10 minutes for repeated offences in the red zone; I think you may and knock on is due to the rain. Uncharacteristically, three minutes into the half Whitby pulled a penalty left of the uprights.
Substitute Luke Jelley who had replaced Andy Oliver (ankle problem) during the first half was now playing fly half, with Davis shifting to 12 and Charlie Powell out to the left wing. Not long after the half, Zak Amond was also introduced to give veteran Tom Stanley a well-deserved break. Sam James, the now often referred to “back five” (of the forwards) replacement, had also been introduced for his first minutes of the season following a wrist injury.
Having been attacking for most of the previously mentioned the sin bin period, Stratford were awarded a penalty try when they blasted Hales scrum backwards from Hales 5 m line, and their winger came up offside to tackle Charlie Billings. The penalty try meant another sin bin in for Hales and this may finally have broken them. 21-5 (with no need for the conversion.)
Hales, who'd been back to 15 men for a while, lost another for backchat after the referee had penalised them for a high tackle in the corner near their try line. A failed backs move off the scrum was waved away and the ref called everyone back for another penalty for Stratford from the scrum. On the next, the Stratford pack went hard and drove Hales back over their line allowing eventual player of the match, stepping in at eight for his injured captain this week, Jamie Jones to fall on the ball and score. Whitby stepped up from the relatively tight angle and finished the scoring 28-5.
Stratford XV: 1. Michael Dawes* 2. Ben Cole* (C) 3. Tom Stanley* 4. James Walton 5. Laurence Birch* 6. Sam Britain 7. Toby Mendes 8. Jamie Jones * (C) 9. Jake Lowe 10. Gwilym Davis* 11. Charle Billings* 12. Dan Whitby 13. Charlie Powell* 14. Andy Oliver 15. Nathan Geekie* (VC) 16. Zak Amond* 17. Sam James* 18. Luke Jelley
*Denotes product of Stratford minis and juniors
