Stanford made hard work of their first competitive game of the season. Undoing previous hard work by giving possession away early on with penalties and minor infringements meant that Stanford found it hard to get into any rhythm.

The forwards continued to toil away up front and Stanford's back line looked as if they might outstrip the Runwell defence although most of Stanford's attacks were thwarted by a combination of good defence and lost ball.

Aaron Smith, returning to the first team on the wing, showed his strength and pace only to be tackled short of the line, but had the presence of mind to pop the ball up to prop Darren Watkins, who was in support to barrel his way over the line from close range to open the scoring for Stanford.

Stanford conceded possession from the restart and Runwell closed the gap with a drop goal. Another fine backs move was this time finished off by Aaron Smith who outstripped the Runwell defence with a show of great speed to increase Stanford's lead.

Stanford gave away a penalty and Runwell had the final word of the half when this was converted.

Half time 10-6. The second half was a tiring time for both sides and Stanford at times looked lethargic, giving away numerous penalties, luckily Runwell could not take advantage kicking only one penalty out of 3 leaving a tense final quarter of an hour with Stanford leading by a point.

When Skipper Reece Anderson looked certain to cross the line in the corner for a try, the ball was lost and Runwell managed to ground it for a 5 yard scrum to Stanford. The pac,k who had stolen ball against the head at random during the day but had not put any real pressure on in the scrum produced a huge drive forcing the Runwell pack back over their try line, No 8 Anderson picked up and had the ball ripped from his grasp by his flanker Jack Collins to score his first try for Stanford. Dave Kelway added the conversion and with that an eight point win to take Stanford into the next round.

Stanford have a week to practice before travelling to Newmarket in the 2nd round of the EDF Junior Vase on the 22nd Sept and then are into their first game of the league program the following weekend.