Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 67 Diss 5

What a difference a week makes! For the second week in a row, Stortford shot out to a 19-0 lead in short order, but this time they were not inclined to invite the opposition back into contention.

After only five minutes, the home side registered their first points, as second row, Hamish Irving crossed for a try under the posts from an inside pass from flyhalf, Tom Coleman after centre,Jack Knowles had made good ground. Scrumhalf, Tom Banks converted, as he did 5 minutes later when flanker, Richard Gill took full advantage of poor tackling to step his way over the line from a slick inside pass from Irving. The third try came 15 minutes into the game, when winger, Simon Wasley barged his way over from the 22. It took another 14 minutes before the previous week's pattern was broken by virtue of the bonus point try, scored by Knowles, showing good judgement to step inside to cross close to the posts, despite a multiple overlap outside. Banks again converted, but he failed to do so 7 minutes later, when Knowles scored his second try from a neat inside pass from Coleman. There was enough time in the first half for Gill's second try after Wasley had seized on a Diss handling error and burst forward to commit the visitors' last defender and set the flanker clear. Banks' conversion took the halftime score to 38-0.

An opportunistic try by Wasley kept the scoreboard moving when, within 5 minutes of the restart, the winger took a quick penalty and rounded his opposite number to touch down out wide. The next score took only another 2 minutes, when Banks scored possibly the try of the match, after a short pass from skipper, Mark McCraith set fellow backrower, Gill clear in midfield and he in turn found Banks in support on his inside shoulder to race over from some 40 yards. The young scrumhalf managed to gather his breath to kick the conversion. Another converted try followed 8 minutes later, when fullback, Phil Williams scored a try under the posts, taking an inside pass from centre, Nick Harris, who had collected a Coleman cross-kick. Only three more minutes had passed, when Gill - now switched to the wing to allow Tom Stokeley to finish his final game for the 1sts as flanker - completed his hat-trick, running in from some 20 yards to round off a slick move from a quickly taken lineout. There followed an 18 minutes lull in the game and it was the visitors, battling impressively despite being clearly outgunned, who broke away to score a try after winger, Alex Crayton, filling in for their injured flyhalf, regathered his own high kick to cross out wide. This score seemed to sting Stortford into life and two minutes later, Harris concluded the scoring with a try after Williams made a telling break, even though momentum appeared to have been lost in midfield.

A 67-5 victory provided a good finish to what has been a very tough season with huge injury problems and takes us into the new season with a three-match winning run. What is more, the catalogue of injuries has allowed a number of very young players to break through into the first XV and the form shown by players such as Banks, Wasley, Knowles, Williams and Ben de Grandis gives grounds for considerable optimism for the future, which will, hopefully see a number of these players appearing on a more regular basis.

Mercedes Man of the Match was Richard Gill for his non-stop performance - whether as flank forward or winger! It was not easy in such a free-flowing game for any player to stand out clearly from the rest, but over the 80 minutes Gilly achieved this convincingly.