At last, a 'W' on the fixture list! It was great to see the boys smiling at the end of a match for the second week running. Last week the lads showed that they could be competitive. This week they showed that they had the ability to seal a win. Like us, Ipswich have had some tough times of late and some of their players were short of match experience But! They certainly weren't short of physical size! They were a big side and at times they used their size and power well but for large parts of the game the home side, steered superbly by Ben at 10 and ably helped by jack and Jake at 8 and 9, played intelligent rugby in the right parts of the field. In the first half the Stow lads used the wind to keep play in the Ipswich end of the field. They were also aware that they needed to look for space, not confrontation, and they did a great job of keeping the ball alive and moving it to the flanks which paid dividends.
Kris opened the scoring, chasing and harrying a loose flap back from a line out in classic openside flanker fashion. When Ipswich kicked off, Ben used the wind to kick the ball back into Ipswich territory. From a scrum 10 metres from the Ipswich line the boys handled the ball to Ollie on the wing who is really starting to play with confidence and he zipped in. Ben put the team back into the right place and Jake scored from a quickly tapped penalty. Jake was again involved for Ollie's second try. When other players were getting carried away and trying to dash for the line from close range, he had the presence of mind to spot the space out on the left and threw out a long pass to enable Ollie to canter in for his second. Half Time 22 - 0.
Ipswich had second use of the wind and with their size being closer to the Stow line brought them two tries of their own as Stow started to panic and rush things a little too much under pressure. With Ipswich piling forward the home side began to concede far too many penalties and were struggling to keep possession for long enough to achieve anything.When they did manage to keep calm heads and work the ball into space they moved the ball through the hands and ran it back upfield where more good harrying work from Kristian pressurised the defence into coughing up a second try for Jake (Better known for his role of 'Player behind Laura Wright' in his most recent Bafta nominated TV appearance at Twickenham). Ben rounded off the scoring when he remembered that he was one of the most powerful runners on the pitch and barged his way over the line from 20 metres.
It was great to get the win but as we always say it's all about the performance. There have been a lot of steps in the right direction these last two weeks. Let's keep putting one foot in front of the other please. well done lads.