Southam went away to Stratford with 15 men, the warm up was rushed with players turning up late, this lead to a poor start with falling off tackles and letting Stratford get the upper hand to score under the posts for a converted try. Southam finally got into action and with some good backs work by centre Oliver North and Wing Henry Warner. Full back Tom Boag scored in the corner with a great finish. From the kick off, Southam fumbled and Stratford ran up the middle to score a soft try under the posts. Southam found themselves inside Stratford’s half, with some strong running by centre Joe Brain and chip and chases from fly half Josh Tolle, but Southam still couldn’t get over the line, Southam had to settle for a penalty from Tolley.
HT 14 - 8

The second half started badly and Southam let in a try in the first 5 minutes, with a 3 on 1 with wing Kiron Phillips calling for some help. Stratford scored in the corner. Southam went down to 14 men with a high tackle from 2nd row James Tolley. Even so Southam dominated the scrum and the line out, with flanker Barney Gallife stealing Stratfords line out ball, but with the man advantage Stratford scored a converted try from driving line out.
Southam struggled to get out of their own half, they weren’t allowed to play advantage and were penalised off the park by the referee. Tensions were high and after a few scuffles centre Joe Brain was sin binned for reacting to being eye gouged, the Stratford payer was also sin binned. Things got so bad that Phil Nichols appointed hooker Sam Duckett as Captain as he could no longer interact with the referee. With very little help from the referee, Southam never gave up with some strong running from number eight Oli Arnold and Josh Tolley running up the blind side, full back Tom Boag got on the end of a pass and scored in the corner. Time was against Southam and in a last ditch attempt on the Stratford's line the ball was knocked on.
FT 22 - 13

This was Southam’s first defeat of the season after going six games unbeaten. Let’s hope the 2’s can front up next week against Old Laurent’s at home in the league next week.