| Staffordshire clinched the Midlands U18 Championship with a magnificent performance on ‘Super Sunday’. Opponents East Midlands had won the R.G. Coward Trophy in five of the previous eight seasons and made the kind of start to boost their supporters hopes of a sixth win.
With a strong wind blowing across the Broadstreet pitch, East Midlands showed some typical enterprise when running from their own half after three minutes and were able to round the Staffs cover and score under the posts. Clearly rattled, Staffs conceded several penalties at the breakdown, two of which were converted by East Mids.
Reacting to being 13-0 down after nineteen minutes, Staffs then asked their first questions of the opposing defence as they secured some reasonable territory. The pack provided some quality quick ball to Fly Half Dan Robson, who chased his precise grubber-kick and touched down. Negotiating the wind Robson steered his conversion between the uprights.
On the stroke of half time a Staffs attack opened up the defence for Robson to carve through and dived over between the five and fifteen metre lines. Another sweet strike took Staffs into the lead at the break.
East Midlands were very much back in the game with a try in the first minute of the second half as Staffs failed to deal with the kick off.
Staffs then managed to settle things down for ten minutes, before Josh Massey kicked behind the East Midlands left winger and Sam Smith was able to scoop up the ball and race clear to score. Massey added the conversion. A sublime Staffs move from half way was then finished off by Charlie Milner. Massey added the extra points. The next attack appeared to have slowed when Harry Sanders recovered the ball, however the centre stepped his way towards the line and when tackled found Luke Hardern on his shoulder for the lock to crash over and score. Massey’s conversion rounded of an incredible six-minute period, where Staffs turned a four-point deficit into a seventeen-point lead.
Staffs brought on replacements, who were able to squeeze the life out of the opposition, earning a penalty opportunity with nine minutes remaining. Massey stepped up and made it four kicks out of four, putting the result beynd all doubt.
This 38-18 win, on the back of 35-22 victories over Warwickshire and 25-13 over North Midlands, capped a tremendous season from the whole squad of players, all of whom made significant contributions to the success.
Squad (with Clubs in brackets):
C Prosser (Lichfield), K Sproston (Lichfield), N Taylor (Burton), J Clarke (Leek), N Davidson (Burton), S Yorke (Stoke), A Clarke (Lichfield), D Richards (Wolverhampton), L Hardern (Leek), M Allen (Lichfield), I Oliver (Staffs), J Hardisty (Stoke), K Laxton (Lichfield), J Briggs (Burton), R Morgan (Wolverhampton), C Milner )lichfield), M Smith (Lichfield), A Nixon (Worcester Warriors), D Robson (Longton), J Massey (Lichfield), H Sanders (Stafford), A Allen (Wolverhampton), T Storr (Lichfield), R Fielding (Lichfield), S Smith (Burton), J Sampson (Stafford), T Westwood (Newcastle), L Waqa (Leek), J Dixon (Lichfield), N Wrathall (Burton).
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