Stowmarket 26 v Warriors 5 16/12/17

Stowmarket, joint league leaders, started with intent – their pack pushed the visitors back and scrum half Jo Fifield shot quick passes to hooker Jake Squirrell and the forwards to charge on to. Dummy runners defected defence and full back Daniel Garrard was omnipresent, kicking from hand and chasing chip kicks. Woodbridge countered through No8 Aldis Salavejs and flanker Matt Bowman but handling errors and penalties meant the Stow onslaught continued, winger Nicholas Faliveno and Garrard coming close. After several tries on the Warrior’s 5m line the Stowmarket pack finally drove over and No8 Nic Kegge dotted down, Garrard adding the conversion.

Stowmarket’s pack continued to dominate; they held possession and made ground before feeding the ever-threatening Garrard and wings Scott Woolnough and Faliveno. Woodbridge gained some traction from penalties, wing Jamie Smith had a shot at three points and right wing Felix Kibble put in a good run but Stow rebuffed the intrusion into their 22 after repeated scrum penalties.

Woodbridge restarted with a charge by centre Sam Hallows, battering up the left wing but Stow turned the attack, fly half Colin Clarke building a move with flanker Scott Fitzpatrick, Kegge and the forwards which gave flanker James Simpson an easy run in. The battered Warrior defence put in tackle after tackle as waves of runners worked down the right wing, drawing defence in before centre Scott Milton linked with Woolnough who offloaded to Fifield to score. Woodbridge put together some good phases from the restart, Bowman, centre Tom Stokes and hardworking scrum half Adam Plummer shifting wide for Hallows to make 40 metres. Despite some tricky box kicks from Fifield, Stokes and Herb Parsley ran back, setting up several rucks from which Plummer moved quickly right for Kibble to finally get the Warriors on the scoreboard. Fifield and Kegge lead the charge back aware of the bonus point from another try and their points parity with Southwold. No surprise when a scrum in the centre of the Woodbridge 22 yielded the extra point from another Kegge try after a Clarke feed, a just and fitting conclusion from an entertaining exchange.