Trentham played host to neighbours Stoke in the semi final of the County U15s Cup. A pleasant spring like morning met the arriving players with both sides looking up for the challenge. Staffordshire referee Tim Dyer had accepted the challenge of officiating the game between the two fiercely competitive sides.

Both teams ran through their warm ups as the tension built and the touchlines started to fill with apprehensive parents hoping their son's side would win through. The teams returned to the dressing rooms for the final words of wisdom and in Trentham's case some quiet reflection on the task ahead before taking to the pitch.

The opening exchanges were as expected with Stoke moving the ball to their big centre but Trentham had prepared for this and he was immediately scythed down by Tristian who was quickly back on his feet to compete for the ball.

Trentham piled on the pressure and Stoke found it difficult to get out of there half. A neat move in the centre saw Sullivan Nicely open Trentham's account scoring under the post with Joel Bezus adding the conversion.

This settled the home side and but for some dogged defence from Stoke Trentham should have had a couple more tries. Stoke did not hold out for long however before Fly half Joel Bezus gave a wonderful delayed pass to put Sullivan through a gap between the two Stoke centres to score his second under the posts. Unfortunately the conversion skewed wide.

For the rest of the first half Stoke struggled with both territory and possession struggling to get out of their own half. Trentham continued to play some good rugby but failed to capitilise and turn the dominance in to points and the first half ended 12-0.

Half time talks administered the second half began with a revitalised Stoke who came out much more fired up than they had been in the first half. Strong running from their forwards and better penetration from the back line soon saw them deep in the Trentham half looking for a try of their own. The home side were caught on the hop a little bit by this and started to look in a little bit of disarray. Thankfully the scramble defence held out and they cleared their lines.

Both sides saw the wrath of referee Tim as the intensity increased with penalties being awarded for a variety of offences. Final warnings were issued based on the number of high tackles with yellow cards threatened.

Stoke continued to pressurise and disrupt the hosts defensive patterns and a neat chip kick from the visiting fly half set off a race to the Trentham line between the Stoke winger and Trentham's No 8 Elijah. The Stoke winger edged the race and looked to have grounded the ball only for the referee to adjudge that he was over the dead ball line.

The game started to swing back in the home sides favour as Stoke's winger tripped Ben Twigg as he rounded him and was awarded a yellow card for his efforts. Trentham were now back in the ascendancy and some neat hands through the three quarters saw diminutive winger Will Devey scamper round his opposite number and beat the cover tackle to score a well earned try in the corner.

The visitors frustration showed as their discipline started to slip and it wasn't long before another player received a yellow card for a high tackle as the referee had warned.

Stoke started to kick more ball in an attempt to gain territory but Trentham were strong on the counter and when Ben Twigg Collected the ball in his own half he set off down the pitch at pace rounding the defence to score a great individual try in the corner.

The final nail in the coffin came on the point of full time when the kick off was collected by Miguel Ladeira who ran hard at the opposition breaking 3 or 4 tackles before offloading the ball which was moved quickly to Sullivan who fended off the first tackle and used his pace to go outside the cover and claim his Hat Trick.

Final Score Trentham 27 Stoke on Trent 0. Tries: Nicely (3), Devey, Twigg. Conversion: Bezus. Man of the Match: Twigg