Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 25 Staines 18

Almost 2 hours passed between kick-off and the final whistle of this hard-fought game, which was punctuated by injuries at regular intervals. Although Staines, arguably, sustained the worst injury, when their scrum half was laid out for several minutes after a particularly hard double tackle early in the second half, which ended his involvement, the loss by Stortford later in the half of Captain, Mark McCraith to a recurrence of a hamstring pull, followed shortly by inside centre, Marcus Cattell with a foot injury collectively dealt a greater blow to the home side.

Both sides posed early threats through their backs, but mistakes at crucial points prevented any score within the first 10 minutes. The second concerted assault by Stortford, however, brought a breakthrough, when comeback-boy, David Rose touched down under the visitors' posts after a very sharp pick and drive from the base of a ruck, set up by Tom Coleman after good movement through the backs. Coleman's conversion took the score to 7-0 and, within 5 minutes he was able to double the home side's tally with the conversion of a further try by scrum half, Arran Mahoney who was rewarded for providing outside support for winger, Harry Marner after he fielded a fortunate bounce from a speculative kick by Coleman. This lead was maintained for almost 15 minutes before Staines finally managed to go through a number of phases without mistake and put their right wing into space, which he exploited well to break 2 attempted cover tackles for a try out wide. Their flyhalf, Richard Mahoney did very well to convert from the touchline. There was no further score in the first half, despite the addition of some 10 minutes of injury time.

Seven minutes passed after the break, before the scorers were troubled again, when Stortford extended their lead with a try by fullback, Jimmy Rae. He was on hand to finish off a good move started with a telling burst through the middle by wing forward, Aaron Springham followed, for once, by slick movement of the ball through the backs' hands, culminating in a clean break by centre, Ben de Grandis to set Rae free. Within 15 minutes, though, the home side had to substitute skipper, McCraith and Marcus Cattell in the centre and chose also to replace prop, Olly Day and, although the three replacements, Dave Aldam, debutant, Mitch Clare and Will Freeston all threw themselves into the fray to good effect, the home side's momentum was undoubtedly disturbed. It took the visitors more than 10 minutes to capitalise, however, when they were awarded a try from the base of a ruck, following a period of sustained pressure on the Stortford line. Within 5 minutes, though, the home lead was widened by 3 points from a Coleman penalty, when a Staines forward was penalised for entering the side of a ruck. It took only 5 minutes for Staines to narrow the gap again to 7 points with a penalty by Mahoney for offside after a period of sustained good handling by the whole side was repelled only by dogged Stortford defence. Shortly thereafter, Staines' Captain, Tom Cleary was yellow-carded out of the blue for a ruck offence, but Stortford were able to benefit only to the extent of a further Coleman penalty after a strong tackle by Aldam, as Staines looked to run out of their own half. The pendulum appeared to swing back towards the visitors once again, though when, after 2 more minutes, Stortford suffered their own yellow card, with Springham being sin-binned, but continued stubborn defence managed to limit the damage to a last minute drop goal by Mahoney, with the visitors settling for an away bonus point.

With yet more injuries being sustained, this was a battling performance by Stortford, which saw a deserved and welcome return to winning ways. Next week's visit to Civil Service will present another tough challenge for whatever side Stortford can muster but, with the kind of spirit shown this week and last, they can be relied on to give a good account of themselves.