Hertford 12 Bishop's Stortford 8

Although rattled by some strong early tackles by Stortford (notably by centre, Wayne Child), Hertford enjoyed the better of the first 15 minutes of the game, culminating with a converted try, following a series of strong forward drives, set up by a 5 metre lineout from a penalty. Stortford then took the initiative through their backs and were unlucky to squander good chances through knock-ons/stray passes deep in Hertford territory after good breaks by Arran Mahoney, Ben de Grandis, Joe Clarke and Declan Caulfield. Eventually, the visitor's pressure told, when winger, Ben Stapleton touched down out wide on the right, as the ball was moved quickly along the backline from a lineout on the left in the home 22. Luke Webber's conversion attempt went narrowly wide, but he was successful on the point of halftime with a penalty goal for a breakdown offence by Hertford, taking the visitors into the break with a one point lead.

Stortford's travails in the scrums did not lessen following a halftime reshuffle of the front row and being pinned down into the bottom 22 area, meaning that they had to push uphill, made life even more difficult. As a result, they struggled to escape from their own half for the first 15 minutes and their cause was not helped when Caulfield had to come off injured after 24 minutes. This required Scott Romaine to move from the backrow to his usual position at hooker, with de Grandis moving in from the wing to take his place at flanker. Things soon got worse still, when second row, Alex Collenso was yellow carded after he threw the ball to the ground after a penalty was awarded to Hertford. From the penalty in Stortford's 22, it was no surprise when the Hertford pack again forced its way over the line for a try, which was unconverted. Further brave defence by Stortford with de Grandis very prominent prevented any further Hertford score, but, despite continued good prompting from flyhalf, Webber, the visitors were unable to break through themselves for the score that they needed to sneak the game. Stortford ended the game by exerting pressure on the home defence, but time ran out with the score still 12-8 to Hertford.