CHURCH Stretton finished the season with some silverware following their 41-26 victory over Greyhound in the North Midlands Vase Plate final.

The Samurai reached the final last season only to lose out agonisingly in a shoot-out to Redditch.

This time they made no mistake, pulling clear in the second half to defeat their Hereford opponents.

And for a number of the younger players, they were able to celebrate a cup double after taking the honours in the u19s North Midlands Colts Cup.

Stretton made the perfect start when a good team effort led to no 8 Pete Foster burrowing over in the corner, Tom Chard kicking the extras.

The Samurai continued their high tempo and grabbed a second try within minutes through centre Alex Hearle following a pass from George Bagley to open up a healthy 12-0 advantage.

In perfect conditions, the backs were hungry to play an expansive game and ran the ball at every opportunity. Colts players Hearle, Will Forbes-Lee and Will Davies all looked dangerous with ball in hand while Tom Ward injected further pace from full-back. They nearly added a third try after a turnover from Nick Evans and some good work from scrum-half Jamie Bates, but the ball was spilled feet away from the line.

Stretton were soon made to rue their wasted opportunity, as Greyhound scored in the left corner through prop Mark Austin to narrow the gap to seven points.

But they bounced back when Joe Charles, on briefly as an injury replacement, dived over the whitewash within a minute of coming off the bench.

These were to be Stretton's last points of the half though as Greyhound scored two tries in quick succession through centre Darren Braithwaite and Oli Paton to take a 19-17 interval lead.

The Samurai came out fighting at the start of the second period and they regained the lead when fly-half Martyn Longhurst crashed over from close range

Davies added his name to the scoresheet and two successful Chard conversions gave Stretton a 12-point cushion.

Elliott Phillips ran in a long-range converted try for the Dogs as they raised their game but solid defending kept them at bay. Foster went on a bulldozing run to give Stretton momentum while Longhurst orchestrated the play from fly-half to keep them on the front foot with some tactical kicking.

Chard then slotted over a penalty before replacement Jack Titley wrapped things up with an opportunist try late on, gathering a Longhurst drop goal that fell short of the posts before crossing the line with Hearle kicking the extras.

Stretton saw out the remainder of the game comfortably to lift the plate at their second attempt to make it two significant cup wins in quick succession for Shropshire's newest rugby club.