Richard Pepperell wants to see a response from Stratford RFC after opening day defeat
DIRECTOR of rugby Richard Pepperell is seeking an immediate reaction from Stratford after they suffered a rare home defeat to Ludlow on Saturday.
The Black and Whites were well in the contest at 12-12 early in the second half but three tries for the visitors in the space of eight minutes ultimately proved the difference.
While the Pearcecroft men did manage to reduce the arrears somewhat, they struggled to trouble the Ledbury defence and Pepperell is hoping for a better display at Malvern this Saturday (3pm kick-off).
“We did not play well at all,” he told the Herald.
“Both in attack and defence we looked unstructured and we need to get that structure back.
“In defence we did not work collectively and at times we were hanging back which created gaps for Ludlow to exploit.
“When we did have the ball we did not really go forward with it and kicked it far too often which handed possession to Ludlow and that put us on the back foot again.”
He added: “In patches though I thought we showed we were good enough to have won that game but Ludlow’s purple patch in the second half put them out of sight.
“We very rarely lose at home and we never really lose two on the spin so I’ll be looking for a reaction at Malvern.
“When I first took charge three years ago we lost our first game and then went on our unbeaten run so hopefully we can do that again.”
Ludlow made the brighter start at Pearcecroft, winning a series of penalties that pinned Stratford in their 22. This pressure led to Ludlow driving over from close range to make the score 5-0.
Stratford responded immediately with their dangerous backs interchanging, allowing inside centre Gwilym Davis to release try machine Charlie Powell with a perfectly timed pass to score in the corner. Nathan Geekie added the extras to give Stratford the lead for the only time in the game.
Ludlow dominated large parts of the rest of the half, putting pressure on the Stratford set-piece and regularly winning penalties that kept giving them territorial advantage.
This led to them scoring again to take a 12-7 lead. The final ten minutes of the half saw Stratford apply their own pressure and while they didn’t score, one of Ludlow’s players was sent to the sin bin for bringing down an attacking maul.
Stratford continued on the front foot at the beginning of the second half, with outside half Jordan Baker pinning Ludlow in their own dead ball line which led to a goal-line drop out.
Ludlow didn’t clear well enough and a clever interchange between Jack Young and debutant Chris Bolton on the left flank allowed Michael Dawes to dot down in the corner to level the scores at 12-12.
Stratford were unable to maintain pressure and this allowed Ludlow to score three unanswered tries in a very short space of time, taking the score to 31-12 with 20 minutes left.
The Black and Whites did manage to arrest the momentum by scoring one more try, with Dawes getting his second of the afternoon, however, they never managed to threaten the Ludlow lead and the visitors went on to score once more for 37-18.
New players are welcome at Stratford RFC. Anyone interested in playing rugby should make contact through the website: https://stratforduponavonrfc.rfu.club.
