Stratford Rugby Club are beaten by Moseley Oak in the Regional Two Midlands West match at Pearcecroft

Stratford were unable to halt the unbeaten charge of league leaders Moseley Oak who ran out 5-26 winners in Saturday's Regional Two Midlands West match at Pearcecroft.

The home side got the match underway but, owing to a 50-22, Moseley put the pressure on early in the red zone.

An over-thrown line out, a tap penalty for Moseley and a couple of turnovers each way still left the visitors in prime position.

Stratford were caught out when, as so often happens, a Moseley pass went to ground.

Hoping to capitalise, the Stratford centre’s rushed up but a pickup on the run from a Moseley player cut through the defenders, stopped just short of the line.

A quick pick from the resulting ruck was scored to the right of the posts and, with the conversion, it was 0-7.

Stratford were defending well, holding Moseley with turnovers and benefiting from knock-ons.

The scrums were solid and allowed them to clear the ball out of their half on a few occasions, but line outs were not quite on point.

Moseley did score again however with quick ruck speed and hard runners eventually wearing down the Stratford defence, allowing them to touchdown left of the posts. Unconverted, it was 0-12.

There was an even more promising moment for Stratford when, instead of winning the ball back and clearing into touch, fly half Luke Jelley threw a wide pass to Dan Whitby who stepped inside his man and made it 15 metres before being stopped near the halfway, lifting the crowd.

Stratford continued to work their way back into the game and found more yards when spreading the ball further away from the breakdown, the forwards were being outmuscled but the backs were often able to avoid a dominant tackle by good use of their feet.

This theme continued with Stratford enjoying some possession.

Nathan Geekie, Charlie Billings and Whitby were more and more involved, and the forwards were securing the ruck allowing Ben Humphreys quick ball.

This progressed Stratford into the Moseley red zone on multiple occasions, but the final piece of the puzzle appeared to be missing. At half time, the score was still 0-12.

Shortly into the second half, a Stratford lineout went wrong on their 22 and saw a Moseley forward go five metres before being brought down.

A few phases later a long pass out to the left-wing exposed a gap where the backs, previously in an attacking shape, hadn’t switched to a defensive one quickly enough. Moseley converted their try in off the far post to go 0-19 up.

Stratford were still looking good when on the ball, with Whitby getting around his opposite man numerous times and putting the hosts on the front foot.

He appeared to be thriving in the wider 13 channel when he has more recently been deployed at 12.

Right-wing Jo Cook, like his opposite wing Billings in the first half, was set away one-on-one down the five metre channel but the kick ahead bounced to the benefit of the Moseley full-back.

Stratford's forwards were starting to make progress as well now, with the more dynamic runners taking the ball and the bigger guys focusing on securing any resulting ruck.

A promising position was lost in the Moseley 22 with the referee citing early engagement by Stratford on the scrum, possibly a side effect of introducing Dom Leach and Mike Hickey from the bench into the action, keen to make a positive first impression.

This period also had the reintroduction of Jake Lowe at nine who quickly got to work ruffling the Moseley forwards.

Despite Stratford’s improvement, an example of it gone wrong resulted in Moseley getting their fourth try of the day.

Having worked the space to put Cook in down the right wing once more, when the ball went left out of the ruck, one of the Moseley forwards read the next pass and, thanks to a scrambling defence, they were awarded an attacking scrum five metres from the Stratford try line.

The potential high contact in the ruck that allowed the scrum was let go by the referee.

The score was now 0-26 but one would be forgiven for thinking it was a lot closer than that.

After the game got going again, a Moseley clearing kick was taken well by Cook and Stratford moved into the visiting half.

With Geekie, Gwilym Davis and Luke Jelley all capable fly halves, in the backline Stratford were testing the Moseley defence and getting around the edges.

Having moved the ball coast-to-coast a few times, Whitby was put in down the left channel and bumped off an attempted tackle from the last man to ease round the corner and in towards the posts.

With Whitby unable to convert his try, the game ended 5-26 five minutes later.

Though not named specifically, James Walton was rewarded for his hard graft over the 80 minutes as the player of the match award was given to him jointly with Whitby.

Despite the scoreline, Stratford did grow into the game and will take many positives from it, travelling away to Malvern this weekend with hopes of getting back to winning ways.

Stratford: Michael Dawes, Ben Cole, Tom Stanley, Zak Amond, James Walton, Laurence Birch, Dom Wan, Jamie Jones, Ben Humphreys, Luke Jelley, Charle Billings, Gwil Davis, ⁠Dan Whitby, Jo Cook, Nathan Geekie, ⁠Dom Leach, Mike Hickey, ⁠Jake Lowe.