Skipper Cook makes case for defence after big defeat

SKIPPER Jo Cook declared himself happy with Stratford’s defensive performance despite their 33-3 defeat to Old Patesians on Saturday.

The visitors maintained their grip at the top of the South West 1 East table with a bonus-point victory in atrocious conditions at Pearcecroft.

Steffan Morgan (2), Richard Hance, Darren Moore and Jasper Frost all went over for the runaway league leaders, with Stratford’s only reply coming from the boot of Nath Geekie.

It was always going to be a difficult afternoon against a side that have won all 17 of their league games this season and Cook was keen to take the positives.

He said: “If you take the scoreline away, our performance was very good, most notably in defence.

“Our scrum and line-outs functioned well and we prospered a bit from those.

“Old Patesians are a very organised outfit and they have a lot of strength in depth.

“We went behind to a couple of early scores as a result of the ball being spilled and we never really recovered.”

On Saturday, Stratford aim to secure a league double when they travel to Oxford Harlequins.