Stourbridge 22

Rosslyn Park 25

It's a strange phenomenon, pressure. Too much of it and legs turn to jelly, hands to stone and brains disappear completely. Not enough and hearts forget to thump.

The generation and management of it has been Stourbridge's problem all season yet for once, ironically on the day when their relegation was effectively sealed, they got the balance about right.

But then that's the point. Although they weren't admitting it publicly deep down Stourbridge knew Wharfedale had been their Waterloo, so to speak, and that their destiny had already been set.

Privately they were demoted before this match even kicked off and they were liberated by that knowledge.

You could see it right from the opening kick off which Drew Harper collected and hammered two tacklers 5m back over the gain-line.

For the first time in ages Stourbridge's tails were up from the very first whistle and the only thing that had changed was the pressure.

Last week they lost Ben Hughes early on and they crumbled, this week Nathan Bressington was off inside the first half hour and they barely batted an eyelid. Who says rugby isn't played in the mind?

Stour's forwards ripped into their opposite numbers and often dumped them on the backsides, Peter White's handling at the base was virtually faultless and Ben Barkley simply steamrollered defenders.

Three of them failed to halt his second minute rampage which took him 20m to the line for an outstanding individual score.

Then the Rosslyn Park defence parted to allow him to bag his second on a simple piledrive to the posts in the 23rd minute. Indeed every time he touched the ball Stour were suddenly at least 10m up the pitch and building from a base.

The other try scorer, Joe Garner, was industry personified and fully deserved his 60m strike early in the second half as the home side built a 22-10 lead.

But winning positions confer their own kind of pressure and it became too much for Neil Mitchell's men to handle. Former Worcester hooker Ben Gotting pulled back a couple of tries to make the score 22-22.

And then with four minutes to go the tension told. Replacement prop Mike Hill couldn't help himself at a ruck and infringed. Ross Laidlaw stepped up and booted over the winning points. Now that's how to handle pressure.

STOURBRIDGE: Williams; Bressington N (Lane 15), Jarvis, Barkley, Bressington A; Robinson S (Richardson 40), White; Sturdy (Hill 50), Wordley (Page 50), Furniss, Hall (Lawrence 71), Dacres, Garner, Rovira, Harper

ROSSLYN: Edwards; Shabbo (Edgerley 40), Parsons, Robinson W, Rudd; Laidlaw, Baxter (Barr 51); Ovens (Marfo 53), Richmond, Ward, Lloyd-Jones, McKeen, Gotting, Rowland, Trayfoot. Replacements: Johnson, Cross

Referee: Thomas Davis (RFU)