The Don Oakes Motors Senior Bs headed north to play New Plymouth Old Boys on Saturday.
It was your typical crude match as both teams were not giving much away, but Stratford was the first to score as Jason Pepper found a gap in the Old Boys backline to score under the post, converted by Fraser McDonald.
Old Boys didn't take that lying down and shortly scored themselves out wide to make the score 7-5.
The Stratford forwards were dominant and gaining lots of metres and our one off runners at the ruck, it left Old Boys infringing, penalty to Stratford 10-5.
With just minutes remaining in the first half Old Boys snatched the lead through a missed tackle in our midfield and scored under the post 12-10 half time.
The wheels fell of the Stratford game in the second half with missed tackles and fatigue setting into the players as the game was played at a fast pace. Our only points in the second half came from Robin Kivell with a 45m penalty which took the score to 13-12. But with a hand in the scrum in front of our post saw Old Boys take the lead again 15-13, then with 5 minutes remaining they scored out wide to push their lead to 20-13, and with time against us that was the final score to Old Boys. Trent Rowlands had another strong game and deserved player of the day, other players that stood out were Robin Kivell, David Avery, Daniel McDonald, Even Dickson, Jared Coster and Jason Pepper.