Stroud U11's travelled up the M5 to play Worcester, with the sun shining and firm ground conditions the large crowd were entertained with two games, both sides showing excellent rugby skills, the morning ended with one win each.
Stroud played their best rugby of the season so far, credit must be given to the whole team who all worked together both in attack and defence. A good solid scrum from the front row of Keelan Spence, Dom Butcher and Aaron Raath gave the backs good ball to move forward with and link with second row Joe Ashenford for the first score, Ashenford converting for the two points. An excellent passing move involving Freddy Stephenson, Charlie Cox, Richard Siebenaller, and Konah Dyer resulted in Jonathan Butcher receiving the final pass and weaving his way past the final defenders for the try which he then converted. Worcester came back into the game and were spending more time in Stroud's half, from one of their driving mauls Ashenford was able to steal the ball and break blind and sprint to the line for the touchdown which he then converted. Ashenford stole the ball again shortly after the kick off and evaded the remaining defenders for touchdown and added the conversion. A good drive from Harry Ward and Ben Pope set up good ball for scrum half Oliver Greensweig to pick up and weave his way to the try line for the score, Ruben Keating adding the conversion. From the resulting kick off Ashenford caught the ball and then proceeded to weave his way through the Worcester team for a wonderful solo try again adding the conversion. The final try was the best of the day with the forwards and backs working well together to keep the ball alive, the ball passed through numerous pairs of hands with Jonathan Butcher getting the try. Special mention for Jordan Wood-Ayemou who made an excellent debut performance for Stroud in the backs.
With a very large squad Worcester were able to field a completely new side for the second game, with so much effort put into the first game Stroud were starting to tire. Two highlights of the game were try saving tackles from Joe Ashenford which earnt him the tackle of the day award. Next week sees a well deserved rest for the players for halfterm break and the following week is training at the Berryfields. With three RFU qualified coaches for this age group there a still places available in the squad, any new players wishing to give rugby a try should call Geoff Ashenford 07798827289 for more information.