Stamford Rugby Club win the Lincolnshire Senior Cup

Stamford have completed the second leg of a memorable county cup final double after a stunning success over Scunthorpe.

They were 29-28 winners in the final at Spalding Rugby Club to follow up the success of their women's team who had won their competition in the game before.

Scunthorpe are a club that play two leagues higher than Stamford so they were well aware of the task in front of them.

The game was played in perfect conditions and a large crowd was in attendance including many who had made the short trip from Stamford.

The ladies had won their cup final against the same club earlier so the men were determined to match the girls' achievement.

The early stages were very cagey with both teams looking to get the upper hand but neither defence was giving anything away.

Stamford were trying to bring their backs into the game and Peter Hurrell made a great run down the left flank but was stopped by a determined Scunthorpe tackle.

After 20 minutes, they put together a good passing move that took them into the 22 and then went wide and full back Dave Martin beat the defenders to score the first try which Fraser Hutton converted to give Stamford a 7-0 lead.

This must have surprised Scunthorpe because their restart kick was taken by Rob Hesford and the Stamford forwards who sent it out to Hurrell and Martin to open a path for Oli Parkinson to score on his debut. The conversion was kicked to give Town a 14-0 lead.

Scunthorpe now got their act together and a series of passes and re-cycling saw them drive over for a converted try.

They took this as a pattern of play they could exploit and worked their way into Stamford's 22 where their fly half put a chip kick over the defence. Two Town players collided trying to catch it and Scunthorpe crossed the line.

The referee had seen a clear push on a Stamford defender and disallowed the try but he also saw a high tackle from Town.

The result was a yellow card for Jack Jones and penalty to Scunthorpe who engineered a driving maul to take them over for a converted try to make the score 14-14 at the interval.

The second half saw the whole game go up a gear as Town worked hard to get into Scunthorpe's 22.

A run from Parkinson and Harley Riches was carried on by Tristram Small who fought his way over the line for a try. It was converted by Hutton to give Stamford a 21-14 lead.

The nature of this game was that nobody was going to accept anything but full effort from all so it was no surprise when Scunthorpe came back hard and fast to eventually score to bring the game back level at 21-21.

Stamford were now taking control of the scrums.

The front row of Mike Harris, Harley Riches and Callum Robertson were supported by replacements Ali Shaw, Joe Ireland and Luke Murphy and, whichever combination was on the field, they had the upper hand.

Town were also delivering some quality line out ball through Jones and the ever reliable Ben Chisholm which gave half back Hutton and Arthur Lewis time and space to work with.

Stamford had a driving maul created by Ed Cox and Austin Baker which went into the Scunthorpe 22 and was stopped illegally, resulting in a yellow card for Scunthorpe and a penalty for Town which Hutton again converted.

Stamford again upped the level of intensity and Zach Morley set up a run which resulted in a scrum in which they drove Scunthorpe back.

This gave the momentum for Mike Kendall to pick up and crash over for a try which took the score onto 29-21.

Stamford now emptied their bench, bringing on Dan Heard and Danny McFadden for the final phase of the game.

Scunthorpe knew time was running out and put everything into attack, but Town defended and kept them out until the last 5 minutes when they scored a converted try to take the score to 29-28.

From the kick-off, Scunthorpe threw everything forward but Stamford fought for every inch of ground until they stole the ball and Hutton kicked it dead for the referee to end the game.

This was truly a cup final worthy of the name as both sides gave everything and the supporters cheered them off at the end and when skipper Jones was presented with the cup.

This 29-28 win followed the 71-5 victory by Stamford Ladies earlier to make the club double county champions.

Credit must go to the coaching staff, led by Matt Albinson and Paul Beard, while the players of both teams thanked the touchline supporters for getting behind the sides.