Yellow card proves costly
It’s a safe bet Stratford centre Kurt Patterson will not slap a rugby ball dead again in his career.
While impressive with the rest of his work in the division one final against Southern on Saturday, Patterson’s decision to illegally get the ball over the dead ball line as the opposition attacked proved costly. For starters, Southern were awarded a penalty try. Secondly he copped a yellow card. Thirdly Southern scored 17 points while poor old Patterson was standing behind the posts. In the end Southern won 28-21.
While the first half was riddled with errors, the second half more than made up for it as the two sides went toe-to-toe.
Stratford No 8 Matt Arnold must surely play premier rugby next season because he not only has he got a massive work-rate, he proved hard to stop, often taking two and three defenders with him over the advantage line. Halfback and captain Gary Old did a lot of quality things as he showed his experience and rugby brains while Patterson impressed with most of his play. Southern’s win was probably built on the fact that they play so well together and work really hard.
SOUTHERN 28 (Steve Bailey try, penalty try; Caleb Symes 3 pens, 2 cons) STRATFORD 21 (Gary Old, Kurt Patterson tries; Old dg, con; Jason Simpson 2 pens).