Stratford New World Colts were at home to Clifton for 'Old Timers' day and we were keen to rectify our last minute loss to them in the first round.
The first half was very messy with our scrums not working well and our work around the rucks and mauls average. We were still strong at the line out and when we got the ball out wide we were able to gain some good meters but turned the ball over far too many times and our first up tackles were not effective.
Unfortunately there was a lot of off the ball stuff being done by Clifton and it was disappointing to see it being encouraged by supporters as it continued to be allowed to carry on both teams were getting extremely frustrated and the rugby suffered. We managed to get two tries but we let in three with one converted and a penalty to be down 20-10 at half time. After a few changes at half time and a talk about staying focussed on the rugby we started to play a lot better and were able to run in a well worked try. Although the off the ball stuff continued the boys showed good discipline to carry on and played a dominate second half. We were able to turn Clifton around when they attacked and with some good kicks for touch we were able to keep Clifton in their own half most of the time. We kept the pressure on and were able to run in another try, with the earlier try converted it gave us a 22-20 lead with 10 minutes to play. We managed to stop Clifton's last attack and we were camped on their try line threatening to score again when we turned the ball over they chose to kick it out ending the game giving us the win 22-20. Stand out players were Cody Ussher, Otis Floyd, Ben Phillips, Josh Trott while Col Baker came on at half time and had a strong game.
