RUGBY: STANFORD’s U14s played with passion to produce a major upset at South Woodham Ferrers to bag their first league points of the season.

Stanford had lost their previous two league matches and SWF had won both of theirs, so the home side were clearly favourites.

Despite struggling in the set pieces and the breakdown at times, Stanford applied pressure, resulting in the team dominating territory for large parts of the match.

The first half was dominated by the defences, which forced errors by both sides and it was the home side who scored first in the corner with a forward drive, the conversion was missed.

Stanford came back hard, pressuring South Woodham again, and it was Stanford’s fly Dave Hickey who floated through a gap in the home defence after a dummy to score under the posts, and then converting his own try. The score at half time was 5-7.

Hickey continued to control possession and territory intelligently, pinning the home team back on their own line, with Billy Gibbs and Tony Bewers picking and driving effectively.

The back row of Callun Merchant, Dan O’Flaherty and Louis Webb tackled hard throughout and the midfield defence of Jake Watts and Josh Gochmanski was solid.

In the second half, wingers Jake Clarke and Louis Pike came close.

The Stanford pack were raising their game as the match went on, and the addition of Ross Wright and Jay Rogers at half time increased the aggression of Stanford’s’ forwards.

The continued effort of the Stanford boys resulted in them camping on the home sides’ line for most of the second half.

Although South Woodham threatened to break out, time ran out for them.