Stone Rugby Club returned to the grind of league action as they welcomed Cannock 2nd XV to Enson Lane last weekend and recorded a handsome victory.
Cannock stated the proceedings kicking off facing the clubhouse and into the wind; Stone started brightly, combining tidy forwards play with strong running from their backs and it didn’t take long for Stone to begin finding holes in the Cannock defence. They were let down in the first 15 minutes by sloppy passing, though. On three occasions they produced a forward pass with the line at their mercy.
Eventually Stone took advantage of their pressure and after a strong run from the backs the ball was popped to Jim Holmes to cross over the line for their first try, Jon Bekalo added the extras. Cannock came back strong after the score but could do little to escape from their own half, with only Stone’s poor handling once again preventing further scores. Just before the half hour mark the home side struck again, the backs finally warming their hands up to release inside centre Danny Cutler who charged through the visitor’s defence and scored, John Bekalo once again added the extras.
With Stone now settling into their groove they starved Cannock of the ball and soon had their third score, sending wing Mitch Freeman down the right to score on his home debut. This time the conversion was missed to make the score 19-0 at the break.
Despite ringing the changes at half time Stone immediately resumed where they had left off, the added weight in the pack adding more problems to the visitor’s defence. Stone were out of sight within 10 minutes with two quick-fire tries, captain John Bekalo finishing off another fine backs move to dot down in the left corner, before Danny Cutler scored his second of the afternoon with another strong run through the defenders, John Bekalo converting one out of two to make the score 31-0.
Having defended for most of the match Cannock began to tire and Stone took full advantage, John Bekalo adding his second in the far right but missing the resulting conversion due to the tight angle. With the score 35-0 Stone took the chance to blood their new wingers after their run-out at Sandbach the weekend before.
After spending most of the match in their own half Cannock were suddenly awarded the easiest of tries, a clearance kick was fielded by stand-in fullback Jake Pedersen who, despite being under no pressure from the kick chasers, dropped the ball and as he tried to recover hacked it to the Cannock 13 who ran through to score Cannock’s only try. With time running down Stone were awarded their final try of the match, a loose kick from hooker Jake Cabrera was fumbled by the Cannock full-back into the path of Jake Pedersen who hacked on and touched the ball down to somewhat make up for his earlier error, Mike Lightbown adding the extras to make the final score 43-7.
[box type=”info” align=”aligncenter” width=”400″ ]Stone are at home to Tamworth on Saturday 7th February, 2.30pm kick-off. Home matches are played at Stone Hockey Club in Enson Lane, Aston.[/box]
