Stourbridge 23, Wharfedale 20

So near and yet again so very far. April may yet turn out to be the cruellest month but October is doing pretty well so far with little justice – poetic or otherwise – attending the Greens’ fortunes.

Once again this was an SSE National League One game that went to the wire only for the Greens to pull up just short.

The only difference this week was that Wharfedale entered the home straight with their noses just in front.

But a last-gasp penalty try denied Wharfedale a much-needed victory as a very relieved Stourbridge side drilled home their party-piece rolling maul 20 metres to the line for James Hearn’s conversion to wrap up a priceless first home success.

The home relief was palpable – like seeing your baby born according to the Saxons’ somewhat over-emotive team manager.

The Greens may arguably not have done quite enough with the wind in the second half to seal a win that should have been theirs.

But equally the Stourbridge side barely earned their hair’s-breadth victory in this basement clash between two less then confident, nervy unsuccessful sides, despite their valiant rearguard action throughout the second half.

The Saxons, with first use of a fierce end-on wind that did much to shape the game, were off to a fired-up flying start as scrum half Tom Richardson exploited defensive error near the the line to score with barely a minute gone.

Winger Hearn, on loan from Moseley, kicked the conversion and added an equally sure-footed fifth-minute penalty to open up an early ten-point lead. Wharfedale were being rushed off their feet.

It took some time but gradually they came to terms with the task. With much of the game a heavyweight physical confrontation between the packs, the Greens’ hard work up front gradually wrested a control that allowed them, despite the wind, to camp within sight of the home line.

Excellent ball-carrying by Richard Rhodes, Richard Brown and Tom McGee sustained the pressure and exemplary error-free control through the phases brought eventual reward through winger Scott Jordan’s neatly-taken overlap try.

Though a Hearn penalty put the home side further ahead, two tries in as many minutes late in the half secured Wharfedale a deserved, if rather unexpected, 17-13 interval lead.

First Jordan, on his opposite wing, was on hand to pounce on a neat grubber at the line from Luke Gray, excellently converted by James Druce into the teeth of the wind, and then Druce himself was worked clear for a wide-out corner try. Wharfedale had turned the match on its head.

A score to the good and the wind to play with. And that’s more or less how it stayed – until the last fateful moment.

But crucially Wharfedale, for all their continued hard effort, never matched such territorial dominance down wind after the resumption.

Hearn and Druce exchanged early penalty goals as the contest settled simply as one of attrition.

Wharfedale were happy enough in one way to see the Saxons rely heavily on mauling out of deep defence, eating up precious minutes in the process.

But gradually the Greens were being starved of the consistent possession they had earlier enjoy-ed. Rightly they opted for kicking out of hand but the execution lacked the precision to apply real telling pressure on the home defenders.

Two moments proved vital. Wharfedale came perilously close with a fine-30 yard rolling maul of their own which resulted in a card for home prop Andy Lawrence, but not the arguable penalty try.

The resultant shot at goal failed. Then Gray’s best kick of the game – a long, angled low punt to the corner – was wrongly judged to have brushed the flag in-goal and the Saxons escaped with a drop-out.

Prompted forward by the kicking of substitute fly half Mark Woodrow, the Saxons’ rearguard action and increasing control of possession produced its eventual reward as Wharfedale, defending increasingly grimly a four-point lead, were forced into collapsing the final fatal maul.

So yet again a losing bonus point was all the Greens could garner from yet another contest where victory tantalisingly escaped them.

And yet again they picked up injuries into the bargain with Dan Hart and Joel Gill this week’s unlucky casualties.

STOURBRIDGE: M Williams; N Bressington, G Dipple, B Barkley, J Hearn; S Robinson, T Richardson; A Sturdy, L Wordley, A Lawrence; B Hughes , R Hurrell; J Rodley, A Rovira, M Thomas.

WHARFEDALE: D Hart (S Horsfall 34); J Druce, J Gill (W Bell 50), A Hodgson, S Jordan; L Gray, P Woodhead; T McGee, S Graham (B Sowrey 76), N Dickinson; J Quinn, R Rhodes; A Myers, D Solomi, R Brown.

REFEREE: Richard Kelly (RFU)