Stourbridge Saxons lose at Sedgley

Stourbridge Saxons went down 19-14 to Sedgley Park battling not only their hosts but also the worst the Manchester weather had to throw at them.

Persistent rain during the week did not let up on Saturday and had left standing water on several parts of a pitch, which quickly became a quagmire after play began.

Given the wet conditions both sides managed to put on an entertaining game of rugby, which was to their credit, unfortunately the Saxons came up a little short.

They fell behind early in the match after their hosts took advantage of two quick penalties to set up a five-metre lineout from which they drove over prop Daniel Birchall.

The rest of the half was all Stourbridge and they dominated particularly in the scrum and maul. That superiority earned them a string of penalties, three of which Alistair Bressington slotted to put them into a 7-9 lead.

The weather was affecting both sides with the home side having trouble with their handling while the Saxons were struggling to clear their lines with kicks, three of which were charged down.

From one such charge down, albeit against the run of play Sedgley centre Richard Wainwright collected on half way and ran it in under the posts to give his side a 14-9 lead at the interval.

Early pressure set up Michael Dutton for an easy try that extended that lead to 19-9 after 58 minutes.

Again the early score spurred Stourbridge into life but they ran into a committed defence.

They were given hope when Matt Riley was sent to the sin bin and during that 10 minutes Liam Wordley was driven over from a line out drive.

The conversion was missed from wide on the right and so Stourbridge were forced to run late penalties rather than take kickable shots.

And a combination of committed Sedgley defence and Stourbridge errors enabled the home side to close out the match.