Stamford Rugby Club claim emphatic win against second placed Vipers
Leaders Stamford claimed an emphatic 33-0 win at second-placed Vipers in Counties 1 Midlands East (South) on Saturday.
The conditions were not great for free-running rugby but it soon became apparent that Stamford were the dominant side.
The entire first half was played in the Vipers half, it seemed the only time the ball was in Stamford’s half was when the home side kicked off.
An early scrum laid down a marker for what was to come, The front row of Harris, Robertson and Ireland drove forward to allow scrum-half Frazer Hutton the opportunity to kick through. This was followed up by Ben Chisholm who went through two tacklers to score under the posts, Hutton kicked the conversion to give an early 7-0 lead.
From the restart, Town moved the ball well and Andrews chipped into the corner for a home lineout. Jack Jones stole the ball and fed a charging Cam Boyd who off-loaded to Ed Cox, who gave Zach Morley a clean run to the line for the second try with Hutton’s conversion making it 14-0.
Stamford were in full control and moved the ball wide with support runners available. When they were awarded a penalty, Andrew again put the ball in the corner and a rehearsed drill saw Boyd drive over for a converted score at 21-0.
Town took the restart straight back into Vipers 22 and Cox set up a driving maul which allowed Jones to peel off and dive over under the posts, the ever reliable Hutton kicked the extras and Stamford led 28-0. This was also the fourth try so the bonus point was secured by half-time.
The second half, on a deteriorating surface, became a mud wrestle. A long kick out of defence by Iain Downer was chased and when the Vipers defender missed the ball, Dave Martin was on hand to pick up and score.
It was the last time the scoreboard was troubled as Vipers threw everything they could muster at Stamford. When the Leicester side tried to kick long the back three of Martin, Chesworth and Wison took the ball straight back to them or kicked over them.
The Stamford forwards always had the upper hand and strong tackling and driving from McKerracher and Chisholm denied them any advantage. To close the game off, Town used their replacements bench and Baker, Shaw and Hesford came on with no drop in the standards that had already been set.
It was the first time in over three seasons that Vipers have not registered a single point in a match and that underlined the standard that Stamford set.
It’s a rest week this Saturday but there will be a large crowd at Empingham Road on March 1 when Stamford take on Stockwood Park as they could be crowned champions that day.
