Bishop's Stortford First XV 27 Tring 40

Stortford's run of bad luck off the field continued today as they were deprived of the services of hooker, Richie Mcmillan and flanker, Aaron Springham due to sickness on the morning of the game. This resulted in a major acceleration of the return to first team duty of long term absentee, Tom McCraith and an early return from injury for Maehe Austin. While both performed heroically under the circumstances, it was no surprise that steam started to run short as the game went on.

More fundamental to the outcome of the game, however, were a number of poor decisions at critical times, a whole catalogue of penalties conceded at breakdowns and a recurrence of last week's weaknesses in first up tackling. Two of these were instrumental in Tring's first try after 10 minutes, when a period of sustained Stortford pressure in the Tring 22 was relieved by a blatant offence by a Stortford back, entering a ruck from the side and weak midfield defence led straight to a try under the posts, which was duly converted by fullback, Tom Newton. Tring almost immediately gave up their own soft penalty, which Marcus Cattell converted. After 16 minutes the home side nudged into the lead, when a good pass from Cattell sent inside centre, Ben de Grandis in for a try close to the posts, which Cattell converted. Further pressure from Stortford, following a good tactical kick by fullback, Jimmy Rea forced a penalty for offside and Cattell again did the honours to take the score to 13-7 after 22 minutes. Better was yet to come for Stortford, as a further try was registered by wing, Simon Wasley on 33 minutes after an excellent return of a Tring kick initiated by a Cattell dummy in midfield, setting Rea free to feed skipper, Mark McCraith who drew the last defender to make the scoring pass. Unfortunately the subsequent conversion by Cattell was pretty much the end of the good news for the home side, as a try was quickly conceded to dangerous Tring winger, Liam Chennels after another first-up tackle was missed. Newton converted to narrow the gap to 6 points. As half time beckoned, a rash quickly taken penalty in Stortford's own 22 followed by a poor 22 dropout - as the first Tring counter-attack was repulsed - led to another thrust by the visitors, this time down the left wing and, despite the presence of numerous defenders, the visitors were able to break through with relative ease for another try. The inevitable conversion by Newton took the score at the break to 20-21.

A whole string of penalties by Stortford meant that they barely got a look in during the first 35 minutes of the second half. Things got off to a particularly bad start when, after 5 minutes, Mark McCraith was penalised and yellow-carded for a late charge on Tring's left wing, following a pretty innocuous kick from about halfway. This was followed fairly quickly by another try down Tring's left wing after they had stretched the home defence through some good interplay. Newton converted from the touchline. McCraith had yet to return when Newton slotted a penalty after 13 minutes, as Stortford threatened to break out of defence but were stopped in their tracks, as a player recklessly dived over the top of a ruck. Further penalties were kicked by Newton after 16,25 and 32 minutes, as Stortford were repeatedly penalised at breakdowns, taking the score to 20-40. Finally, with only minutes left in the game, Stortford made a telling thrust, as substitute scrumhalf, Tom Banks broke from the back of a scrum and put in a good grubber kick. Winger, Harry Marner was able to seize on the bouncing ball and, although well tackled popped the ball up again to Banks, who dashed over for his first senior try - a well-deserved reward for a spirited twenty minutes' play by yet another Colt, stepping up to show some of his seniors the benefits of getting stuck into even strong opponents. This inspired a frantic last couple of minutes, as Stortford battled for what, based on the overall balance of play would have been unlikely bonus points. Unfortunately, more stout tackling by the visitors deprived the home side of any such consolation.

Another bright spot for Stortford came in the debut of Jamie Campbell, becoming the third Colt on the field, when he came on for injured flanker, Richard Gill late in the first half. Like Banks, he showed no undue respect for the opposition and made a whole series of low, textbook tackles - an example some of his more experienced teammates could with benefit have followed! Centre, Ben de Grandis also did little wrong throughout, but the Mercedes Man of the Match award went to second row, Tom McCraith for the unstinting effort he put in over the full game, despite having hardly played at all this season and having had little chance to train prior to this unexpected return to First team action.