Stour's seconds enjoy a run-out

Jan 23 2007

STOURBRIDGE, with a free weekend after being knocked out of the EDF Trophy by North Walsham in the previous round, took the opportunity to give a run-out to one or two first-team players as their seconds took on Lichfield firsts.

Stour were easy 50-5 winners, but club spokesman Ian Cole said: "It was not that sort of game really. It was the last quarter-of-an-hour when we ran in four or five tries as they tired. They were not that poor, they were quite a reasonable outfit.

"We did play one or two first-team players we thought needed a run-out. Nick Buck, the fly-half, played - so did winger Nick Baxter. He's getting back to fitness and I think that is about his third game for the seconds."

Back-rows Simon Homer and Ally Muldowney were also given a game and Cole said: "Flanker Ramsay Dean came on for the last 20 minutes or so. Ramsay has been out for quite a while so that was his first comeback game. It was a useful exercise."

Stour head to Nuneaton next week with a hint of revenge in the air. Stour lie fourth in National Two, 10 points off second-placed Launceston.

Stour were flying high and thoughts of promotion were in the air when they lost 6-3 to then-struggling Halifax at Stourton Park at the end of September, and a week later they went down 22-20 at home to Nuneaton.

The defeats could only be seen as a potential eight points lost - points which now would have seen Stour breathing down the Cornish All Blacks' neck.