Stamford Rugby Club face Novocastrians from Newcastle in the semi-final of the Papa John’s Community Cup
Stamford are one win away from a coveted cup final at Twickenham after victory in the Papa John's Community competition on Saturday.
They defeated Sutton Coldfield 40-33 in an exciting quarter-final clash in front of a large crowd at Hambleton Road.
The purple, black and whites now host Newcastle side Novocastrians on Saturday (3pm) with the winners securing their place at the home of English Rugby.
Director of rugby Matt Albinson commented: "Novocastrians have a long trip down to us but will be formidable opponents.
"Our preparation will be no different this week. As a group we have been committed to constantly improving ourselves as coaches and players day by day and we have forged a really strong bond with this current group.
"We have a fantastic mix of home grown players including co-captains Ben Chisholm, Jack Jones and George Cox, playing alongside players who have joined the club post their junior rugby successes and the mix is perfect.
"We will need to be at our very best this Saturday, bringing the same intensity to our scrummage work and displaying the same level of physicality as last Saturday in both defence and attack.
"We were disappointed to have conceded 33 points last Saturday - we average only 13.7 points per game across the league season and will be working hard to ensure that does not repeat itself this Saturday.
"We are all eager but, while the whole club is getting excited, the playing and coaching group are back to business - relaxing, focussing and readying ourselves to bring the best of us come game time.
"Thank you in advance to everyone who will be in attendance at the game and to everyone for their messages of good luck this week - the lads will make you proud come 3pm on Saturday."
Stamford will go into the semi-final buoyed by their win at the weekend over a Sutton Coldfield side who had played a full league season undefeated on their way to winning the Counties One Midlands West (North) Midlands Division title.
The Birmingham side soon got into their stride and used their back line to break the home defence for a converted try.
Stamford have been playing some superb rugby lately and hit back with a good move of their own and were awarded a penalty when it was stopped illegally.
Scrum half Fraser Hutton took a quick tap and run and was awarded a second penalty through the defence not retreating 10 metres.
Stamford had a clear advantage in the scrums and the visitors conceded three penalties before Gus Davies picked up and drove over for a try to make it 5-7.
The home forwards were now dominating the play and, from another driving scrum, Jack Jones picked up and broke the initial tackle before laying the ball off to Mike Kendall to score.
Hutton added the conversion and Stamford led 12-7.
Sutton Coldfield re-grouped and used their backs to good effect to gain ground and they finished off a slick move from a line out for another converted try.
Both sides were now playing to their strengths but it was the vastly superior purple, black and whites scrum that was causing the visitors huge problems.
Following a series of penalties, the referee awarded Stamford a penalty try to move the half-time score to 19-14.
Stamford were soon reminded of the job they had though when Sutton Coldfield scored a simple try very early in the second half to level the scores at 19-19.
Town again used the forwards to work their way back into the away half.
The front row of Mike Harris, Harley Riches and Calum Robertson were destroying the opposition scrum and it was Riches who scored a try which Hutton converted.
The game had now swung hugely in Stamford's favour as every scrum was driving forward allowing attacking runners to break off at pace.
It was inevitable that an Ed Cox break was finished with a try which, along with Hutton's conversion, gave Town a 33-19 lead.
Stamford had to reorganise when Hutton received a head injury which ended his very impressive match and saw Will Andrews move from 10 to nine.
From another driving scrum, the ball was moved to Zach Morley who created a gap for himself and then burst through it to score a classic try.
Andrews converted and Stamford stretched their lead to 40-19.
As the game entered the closing stages, Sutton Coldfield kept the ball out wide and created two converted tries to close the gap to 40-33.
But Stamford tightened up and, when Ben Chisholm stole the ball, it was fed back to Iain Downer who launched it almost out of the ground for the final whistle to signal the famous victory.
The incentive of a Twickenham final is now there for Stamford on Saturday with the winners facing either Brunel University or Cobham.
Novocastrians finished second in Counties One Durham and Northumberland Northern Division this season.
They were runners-up in the league to Sunderland who they defeated 12-45 on Saturday in their quarter-final.
