Safety secured by dominant Greens

Wharfedale 40 Stourbridge 5

Though a tense and nervy encounter may have been expected at the Avenue, this must-win game for Stourbridge ended in comprehensive defeat, leaving them on the cusp of relegation as a rampant Wharfedale all but banished any such lingering worries for themselves.

Wharfedale began promisingly with fluent handling pressure producing six points from a sweetly-struck 45-yard penalty from Tom Davidson and a snap drop goal by Tom Barrett.

They were then forced to defend grimly against furious pressure for much of the half. Stourbridge rely heavily on the power of their rolling maul and the Greens’ ability to blunt this potent weapon near their line laid an important platform for their eventual triumph.

Thereafter, their ability for once to turn pressure quickly into points secured them a comfortable 23-0 interval lead with tries from Phil Woodhead, celebrating his England Counties call-up and Simon Horsfall with Davidson adding two conversions and a penalty.

Woodhead was nippily on hand to finish off a break from Dan Solomi from ruck-ball to ground by the posts. Then he combined in a neat interchange of passes with Alex Rieder off the side of a scrum to send his winger over on the blind-side.

Despite the brief encouragement for the visitors of a try immediately after the resumption when prop Adam Sturdy was driven over from a maul, once this was neutralised by Solomi’s steal from a quick tap penalty, it became one-way traffic for the Greens.

Disappointing Stourbridge offered nothing in attack and little back-play support for the often sterling work of their pack, who for all their honest effort, were unable to crack a resilient home defence.

Wharfedale added two further tries to crown a fine all-round display. The bonus-point try arrived on the hour via a deft chip-kick over the defence by Barrett collected by powerful flanker Alex Rieder.

Once the valiant Stourbridge rearguard was breached, the dominant Greens, destroying an exhausted scrum, added a fifth try from replacement prop Joe Altham, converted by Davidson.

Wharfedale were pleased with this fine team performance which settled the nerves.