Sat 3 Sep 2022
Match report from Richard Pepperell
Stratford have room for improvement
“On a bright September afternoon in front of a large crowd attending the Past Players Vice-Presidents lunch, Stratford RFC were well beaten by a well organised Ludlow team who exacted some revenge for being on the wrong end of the result both home and away in the previous season.
Ludlow made the brighter start, winning a series of penalties that pinned Stratford in their 22. This pressure led to Ludlow driving over from close range to make the score 0-5. Stratford responded immediately, with their dangerous backs interchanging, allowing inside centre Gwilym Davis to release try machine Charlie Powell with a perfectly timed pass, to score in the corner, Nathan Geekie added the extras giving Stratford the lead for the only time in the game 7-5.
Ludlow dominated large parts of the rest of the half putting pressure on the Stratford set-piece and regularly winning penalties that kept giving them territorial advantage. This led to Ludlow scoring again to take the lead at 7-12. The final 10 minutes of the half saw Stratford apply their own pressure, though they didn’t score one of the Ludlow players was sent to the sin bin for bringing down a Stratford attacking maul.
Stratford continued on the front foot at the beginning of the second half, outside half Jordan Baker pinning Ludlow in their own dead ball line, leading to a goal line drop out. Ludlow didn’t clear well enough and a clever interchange between Jack Young and debutant Chris Bolton on the left flank allowed Michael Dawes to dot down in the corner making the score 12-12.
Stratford were unable to maintain pressure allowing Ludlow to score three unanswered tries in a very short space of time,more or less taking the game away from the home team with the score 12-31 with 20 minutes remaining. Stratford did manage to arrest the momentum scoring one more try Dawes getting his second of the afternoon, however they never managed to threaten the Ludlow lead who managed the final score finishing 17-38.
