National League Division 2 North

Sale FC 13, Stourbridge 9

STOUR suffered their second defeat of the season after losing out in a low scoring war of attrition with Sale.

That was after Stour had enjoyed the better of early exchanges when they led 6-0 thanks to a couple of long range penalty shots from fly half Luke White.

Stour's early efforts were undone on 23 minutes when Sale No.8 Tom Ailes broke from the base of a scrum deep inside his own half and then broke no less then three attempted tackles before feeding centre Jack Moorhouse who forced his way over in the corner for a try.

Full back Liam McGovern then thumped over a fabulous touchline conversion to put Sale 7-6 ahead.

Stour struck back within six minutes of the second half when they regained the lead with a third well struck White penalty kick.

But although Stour bossed the scrums throughout, they were repeatedly getting their players isolated as support play was slow to arrive.

As a result, Stour were continually penalised for holding onto the ball after being tackled and Sale soon started to rack up the penalties as a result.

From two such transgressions, Sale outside half Chris Johnson, who took over the kicking duties from McGovern, slotted over penalties in the 61st and 63rd minutes to put his side 13-9 in front.

At least Stour managed to salvage a bonus point as Sale camped on their line in the closing stages - but dogged defending kept them at bay.