Stow 37 Drifters 5

STOW earned themselves a winning try bonus and top spot in the league following their victory over Drifters.

The home side were forced to re-shuffle their backline due to injury and unavailability but still won the game convincingly.

The Stow forwards kept possession well from the outset and made ground with some great penetrating runs. The early pressure paid off with a George Roddan penalty. Drifters then took the lead with their first visit into Stow territory. Ball was won from a scrum and with the Stow defence slow to react, a chip over the top was collected for the touchdown.

This proved to be a temporary setback for Stow. After a quickly taken penalty Chris Poweland was on hand to score and Roddan was converted. With the Stow forwards very much on top a Drifters scrum was disrupted. Centre Henry Teare collected the ball to score close to the posts with Roddan again converting.

The visitors were struggling to be in the game and went further behind when forward pressure again proved decisive with Craig Chapman taking a neat inside pass to score. At the break Stow led 22-5.

Stow took a little time to settle after the restart but soon the try bonus point was secured when the forwards won a lineout, drove Drifters 30 meters back then released the backs with Henry Teare crashing through for his second of the afternoon. The extra points were missed. The visitors were still living on scraps and not threatening to break through the Stow defence. Two more unconverted tries were scored, the first from a breakdown where Stow quickly recycled and sent the ball down the line to James Holmes. The final points came from a charged down 22 meter kick out, Louis Chapman collected the ball and neatly offloaded to Chris Powesland to complete his brace.