Leicester Lions 13-27 Stourbridge RFC

STORM Brian was raging but the conditions could not stop Stourbridge from blowing away Leicester Lions to make it eight bonus point wins in a row.

The visitors kicked off with wind advantage and the first quarter of the game saw Lions with superior possession and territorial advantages.

This was the result of some physicality and skill that belied their seventh place league standing but Stour were not helped when after just two minutes Ben Tibbetts was carried off with a leg injury to be replaced by Rod Petty.

Stour were to lose more shape as the game went on with Chad Thorne off at half time and Nick David after 59 minutes.

Lions were first on the score sheet through a Jon Boden penalty on three minutes.

It took another 15 minutes for Stour to establish some territorial gains, Josh Trinham missed out when he was inches short of catching a kick over the defence by Petty.

Lions missed a series of penalties and paid the price when the prolific Joe Heatley made a 30 metre break to score the first try of the game, Nick David added the extras.

Stour's Jack Lea added another try after a series of rucks and mauls as play developed from a huge Scott kick to touch inside the Lions' 22.

Stour finished the half on the front foot with the score at 3-12.

A change in wind direction seemed to favour Stour after the restart, the Lions kick off was deliberately along the ground but Petty’s gather and clearance was a good foil.

After an exchange of metres gained and a corresponding brace of penalties Lions conceded a penalty after handling on the floor in front of their posts and Scott scored from ten metres out.

The Black Country men now had a points gap which brought confidence and they launched a series of punishing attacks which were rewarded with a try for Nick Murphy after the impressive Charlie Jeavons-Fellows had secured possession.

Lions hit back with their own regular scorer Devon Constant but they lost momentum when Drew Rudkin was yellow carded for deliberately collapsing a maul that gave referee Rayner no option to award a penalty try to Stour.

The visitors then went down to 14 Jack Lea was sin binned and Lions upped the pressure eventually seeing open side flanker John Murdoch crash over.

Next week Stourbridge host title contenders Sedgley Park (3pm kick off).