Stoke lose 49-26 at home to Barking.


Whilst this was another defeat for the FX backed side and using the cliche a game of two halves Stoke showed great character in the second half to put in a fine display but yet again asked the question as to why only 40 minutes. The 1st half was very disjointed for Stoke and too many turn overs and many missed tackles allowed the opposition to run the ball back at Stoke and score almost at will on occasions. On 20 minutes Stoke found themselves 20-nil down having conceeded 3 tries 1 conversion and a penalty, two of the tries were a turn over in Barking's half and they returned with interest the errors. One of the tries was as a result in the build up of 6 missed tackles. On 26 minutes Stoke put together thier first real sustained passages of play, firstly to win a penalty on the visitors 22 then from the resultant kick to touch. As a result 6 phases of play saw Barton cross the line and Calder adding a difficult conversion. Soke were loose from the re-start and again were punished with the visitors scoring a converted try to extend the lead to 27-7.Unforced errors continued to gift the ball to Barking who scored two more unconverted tries before the break to lead 37-7 at the interval.

Stoke's cause was not helped when Calder limped offf on 35 minutes with a hamstring injury.

Stoke started the second half in command and had a sustained period of pressure in the visitors 22. However they could not score and on 9 minutes thier number 8 broke from a scrum on his own line to run 40 meters and had support from his team to finish off a score. Thiis was harsh on Stoke particularly on the front row who were perfoming well during the whole match. Stoke then showed great character to reply on 52 minutes when Buckland, who had a superb day, finished off a period of pressure for Northcote to convert and to trail 42-14. During this phase of the game Stoke were starting to control the possession more but were still making unforced errors. Again Stoke were punished for this on 62 minutes when Barking scored a converted try to lead 49-14. Stoke again rallied for the remainder of the match and spending most of the time in Barking's 22. They were rewarded with 2 tries from Dixon and Vincent one converted, to get back to 26-49.

Stoke could of scored some more tries during this period with Hampson crossing the line for the try not to be given and numerous 5 meter scrums where they could not quite break the defence.

After Calder added "We made too many unforced errors and gave away the ball too often. In the first half we stood off in defence and allowed them to attack too easily. When we pressurised them in the second half we cut down thier space and were then the better team."

link to RFU site