Ionians overcame a set scrum battering from the portly visiting pack to win their home fixture against Stourbridge and allow “Bicentennial Sam” to enjoy his double of the day; 200 first team appearances and a club record try tally of 83, surpassing the record held by Simon Smith.
There was little to record in an evenly contested opening 10 minutes,( though Ionians predicament at the set piece was exposed at the first scrum as early as the third minute) until Ionians hoisted an innocuous, aimless kick into mid-field. This was gratefully received by Heatley who set George Morgan off to run it back through the home midfield for Stourbridge to establish position 5m from the Ionian try line. Three phases later hooker Jack Lea seized on indecision in the home ranks to grab the ball and barrel his way over the line. Rickie Aley added the goal for a 7 point lead.
Five minutes later Stourbridge doubled the advantage. A Garryowen was knocked on (and rather over exuberantly celebrated by a number of the Stour’ pack ) and from the resulting scrum the visitors shunted Ionians backwards giving No 8 Sam Montieri time to pick up and exploit room on the blindside. An interchange of passes returned the ball to Montieri who dived over the line, Aley enjoyed success from the tee to put Stourbridge 14 points in front.
Ionians responded in emphatic style, their difficulties in the scrum were not apparent in any other facet of play and Mark Wigham got the score board moving when he finished off an tremendous driving maul that had resulted from a line-out catch 25m from the Stourbridge line. Lewis Minikin kicked the conversion, Ionians were 7 – 14 down but by delivering better ball retention than has been the case thus far this season were working their way back into the game.
Stourbridge profited from some wayward tackling to get within striking distance of the try line but held on in the tackle allowing Ionians to clear to touch. Another well executed driving maul took them well away from danger and adroit break through the centre of a ruck had Ben Stephenson galloping away towards the line. He was caught but the ball was swept across field to Sam Wilson who needed no encouragement to sprint over and touch down close to the posts. Minikin tied the scores at 14 all with half an hour played.
Neither side imposed themselves, with the visitors having a slight territorial advantage, until close to the break when James Tinknell made a decisive break to take play up into the Stourbridge 22. Ionians make a couple of abortive sorties for the line which ended when a dangerous tackle on Stephenson led to a brief altercation and resulted in Hal Riley sitting out ten minutes.
Ionians drilled the penalty into touch and a catch and drive gave Stephenson retribution when he latched onto the ball at the back of the maul to steer it over the line and score. The unsuccessful conversion attempt brought the first half to an end.
Stourbridge made a good start to the second half, the forwards building momentum through close drives to pressurise the home line. The ball was eventually turned over and a raking kick from Minikin took play down into the Stourbridge 22.
Ionians pinned the visitors close to their own line but were unable to profit from a scrum 5m out, play crabbing across the field until Stourbridge stole the ball to clear to touch. Ionians brought play back into the visitors half, the pack drove the ball at the opposition, James Newman powered through to make 10 yards and get Stour’ back peddling and the hosts worked the ball up to the line. Two drives were repelled but when a gap emerged on the narrow side Adam Thomas picked out Newman who strode over for the bonus point try.
On the hour Stourbridge clawed a score back after another period of pressure from the pack presented Lea with a chance to barge over from close range, Aley’s goal cut the deficit to four points but Minikin struck a penalty to put two scores between the sides after Murphy was yellow carded for a deliberate knock on.
The result wasn’t entirely settled at 29 – 21 with 15 minutes still to play, but despite Stourbridge gaining plenty of possession they weren’t able to seriously challenge the Ionians line. Indeed, it was the hosts who completed the scoring with another well controlled driving maul taking the ball to the line where, miraculously, full-back Wilson was on hand to dive over to claim the 83rd try of his career.
It was a creditable performance and result for Ionians. The pack showed character against a powerful scrummaging side with fine performance through-out. It was the old stagers though who stole the plaudits, Joe Makin and Mark Wigham brought their considerable experience and expertise to bare to prevent the visitors dominating and giving inspiration to the young lads around them.
Next week Ionians travel to south of Leicester to play… South Leicester, see you there.