Sedgley Park Tigers 14 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 22

Park made a strong start, regaining the ball from their own opening dropout, but two interceptions, as they tried to force a quick score, kept them at bay. Stortford worked their way upfield and quick hands along the backs allowed Nick Hankin to draw the last defender and give Jake Morris a view of the line. The winger was twenty metres out, though, and he had to force his way past two covering defenders to plunge over in the corner for a try after 6 minutes. Tom Walker added an excellent conversion, as he did 12 minutes later, after Chris Smith added a second try, driven over , as he broke from the base of maul driving at the opposition line. The rhythm of the game was broken by repeated penalties awarded against both sides, with the visitors, in particular, falling foul of the referee's strict enforcement of the Laws. This allowed Park to exert more pressure, but Stortford's defence, picking up where it had left off last week, was resolute and repelled a number of threatening attacks from a home side clearly determined to put recent reversals behind them. With 23 minutes gone, Park were penalised for a high tackle close to half way and Tom Mills stepped up to kick a tremendous goal to take his side 17 points clear. As halftime beckoned, the visitors again worked their way back upfield and, winning a penalty under the hosts' posts, took the bold decision to opt for a scrum. The tight eight were solid again, providing great attacking ball and quick distribution allowed Hankin to come into the line in the first phase and cut through for a try out wide. This time, Walker's conversion attempt flew inches wide.

The light drizzle under which the first half had finished turned into steady rain during the break and drove into Stortford's faces for the rest of the game. The home side handled the conditions well and a combination of judicious tactical kicking and some impressive handling saw them exert considerable pressure. The penalty count, almost inevitably in the increasingly slippery conditions, went up even further and, when Will Rogers was penalised for a breakdown offence in midfield after 50 minutes, he was sin-binned for repeated offences. Stortford battled on and held out against increasingly fierce home attacks, but were further handicapped 7 minutes later by a yellow card shown to Tom Walker for a deliberate knock-on in a tackle close to halfway. Park were quick to take advantage, mounting a long driving maul from the resultant attacking lineout for a try converted by Warren Seals, with a minute of Rogers' sin-bin period to go. The home side kept up the pressure and some impressive handling by their backs required some excellent Stortford defence to keep their line intact. Just before Walker's return to play, however, Park managed to break through again, with their powerful forwards, once more, driving over from an attacking lineout after yet another penalty. Seals converted well from the touchline and, with 15 minutes still to go, his side launched once more into all-court attack. Stortford, though, continued to tackle aggressively, forcing a number of handling errors in the difficult conditions and were able to see out the game for a well-deserved -and desperately-needed - away victory to move two places up the league table.