Loughborough brought a young, aggressive side, made up largely of their Wednesday side, which made for a very fast and fluid game. Stortford were soon in the ascendency and scored a good try through Sam Winter, stepping in from outside centre onto a well-timed short inside pass from Tom Coleman. The flyhalf converted, as he did from a more difficult angle 6 minutes later, when lock, Matt Tomlinson drove over from close quarters after good ground had been made by George Cullen and Jono Child. The students fought their way into the game but were frustrated by a couple of handling errors and had to settle for a penalty by scrumhalf, Tom James after 25 minutes. The next score fell to Stortford tighthead, Tom McCrone from a 5 metre lineout on 28 minutes and Cullen, now moved to flyhalf in place of his injured skipper, made the first of 5 excellent conversions from 5 attempts. Loughborough came back with a good try to James, put in under the posts by a good outside break from flyhalf, David Buck. Winter scored the last try of the half on 43 minutes from a great floated pass from Cullen off turnover ball in the visitors’ 22.

Cullen himself capitalised on a repeat of this situation 9 minutes into the second half to touchdown, his conversion taking the score to 28-15, after Loughborough lock, Will Morrison had crashed over from close quarters for an unconverted try 5 minutes earlier. On 13minutes it was Stortford’s turn to cough up ball and substitute winger, Benji Marfo touched down after a 50 metre kick and chase. James converted. Stortford’s hard pre-season fitness work now started to pay off, as they took a firm grip, threatened only occasionally by the students’ lively backs. Home number 8, Mark McCraith scored the next try, 28 minutes into the half, being driven over from a 5 metre lineout. And Cullen’s conversion took the score to 42-22. Seven minutes later, a yellow card to a Loughborough player for a cynical offside offence in his own 22, as a period of flowing rugby from Stortford threatened to burst the defence apart, effectively finished his team’s challenge. Stortford opted for a scrum, rather than a kick and quick hands saw substitute fullback, Jimmy Rea in for a try by the corner flag to give Cullen the ultimate challenge to maintain his 100% kicking record, which he passed with flying colours.