HEREFORD may have missed out on a play-off place the previous weekend but they finished their season in style with victory over Stoke.

The Wyeside club rounded off their Midlands 1 West campaign with a 33-20 victory to finish in third place, behind Newport and Worcester Wanderers.

With a large crowd present, both sides produced an entertaining display with an exhibition of attacking rugby which produced eight excellent tries.

The game was an end-to-end affair with both teams prepared to make attack out of defence.

Hereford had the better of the first half, registering three tries to a penalty goal and reached the interval with a seemingly comfortable lead.

Scrum half Nat Thomas fed Ali McColl who crashed over for the first try before Dean Powell landed the first of his four conversions.

Minutes later, Stoke reduced the deficit with a penalty goal.

Stoke were narrowly wide with a second penalty attempt before a forward drive allowed Ali McColl to feed Mark Philo, who outflanked the visiting defence to score in the corner, although Powell was not able to convert from the difficult angle.

Hereford completed the first half with a third try. When Stoke failed to find touch, Hereford ran the ball back and the pack took over to drive to the Stoke line. It seemed that the chance had been lost, but the ball was released to Sean Day who eluded the defence with Powell slotting home the conversion to take the score to 19-3.

As the interval approached, Jock Welch and Andrew Potter were both shown the yellow card in separate incidents.

In the second period, Hereford secured the fourth and bonus point try when a determined attack saw the ball find Leon Parsons who crossed for a try.

Stoke responded with some attacking play which built up pressure on the Hereford defence and they eventually forced an unconverted try.

This heralded a sustained period of pressure from the visitors which produced two further tries, one of which was converted and took them to within four points at 26-20.

But in a final flurry of action from the Wyesiders, a sustained passing movement involving Luke Yarranton, Callum Duncan and Matt Pritchard saw Leon Parsons dive over for his second try with Powell again converting.