Match Reports

Vets 51 v 14 Stafford Vets

Another Saturday and another big win for Longton Vets.

The Vets had their stiffest opposition of the season so far, playing Stafford Vets at Trentham Fields.  Stafford play weekly and this showed in their play against Longton, who don't train and put out an almost scratch side for each fixture. 

This week Longton welcomed some old faces back to the club - Steve Williams, Simon Harrison and Rob Hall - as well as a new one in Mark Clowes.  As usual the Vets knitted well together with the forwards dominating the set piece and the backs dominating the running game - particularly out wide.

The Vets' brand of rugby is to play as fast as their old bones will allow, with the forwards securing good ball in the tight play for the backs to use, and then shipping the ball out wide where they still have pace in abundance - with the wingers contributing another 5 tries between them.

The pick of Longton's 9 tries were: Jez calling for the ball from Stafford, receiving a great pass from them on their 22 and then scampering over the try line with a big grin on his face; and Matt running after his own chip from the Stafford 10m line, being held back by Stafford and then breaking free to collect the bouncing ball and run over for the score (If it wasn't for the holding back, Matt would surely have overrun his kick ahead!).  Steve C scored another 3 tries and so gets his second entry on the Xmas Jug list!

51-14 was a good result for Longton Vets against a tough Stafford outfit, but it could have possibly been even more pleasurable had the Ref (who had a good game) not blown up 15 mins ahead of time to bring a swift end to what had become a fairly one-sided match deep into the second half. 

Longton's tries came from Rob Hall (2), Jez Loughran, Matt Glaze, Steve Cartledge (3) and Brian Griffiths (2).  Graeme Wilson managed to slot home 3 of his 9 conversion attempts in the face of a mighty breeze at Trentham Fields.

After a couple of Saturdays off - to allow the aches and pains to subside - the Vets will re-assemble to play Linley Vets at home on 14th November.   New players are always welcome - just get in touch using the Contact Us page of the website.   

AC