Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 50 Taunton Titans 21

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Stortford chose the perfect time to strike top form, probably for the first time this season in this match against the one side in the league which can claim to rival them in terms of consistent competitiveness - built on more solid foundations than the money of a single sponsor. The visitors have suffered a crop of injuries but, in credit to them didn't seek to use this as an excuse for being well beaten by a Stortford team that, for once, got into top gear right from the word go and barely let up until the closing stages.

It took only 2 minutes for the first try to come, with flanker, Dan Elsom in front of his watching parents, over from Oz spinning through a final tackle to touch down, after taking an inside pass from Jimmy Rea, who had burst down the wing after several phases of great handling by the whole threequarter line. Tom Banks made a great conversion, but couldn't quite repeat the feat 6 minutes later, when quick thinking by George Cullen saw him dart down the blindside of a ruck close to the Taunton line after some impressive interplay between forwards and backs and a penalty won at the first scrum of the game.. Within 5 minutes Johnny Neville had bagged a third try, making a clean break from midfield after a solid Stortford lineout and Banks had no problem with the easy conversion. At this stage, Taunton had barely had a touch of the ball. The fourth, bonus point try came after 26 minutes of the game, from a position created, when Matt Tomlinson was first to a loose ball spilled by the visitors and the second row showed great pace to flyhack the ball from inside his own half to the opposition line to be only just beaten to the touchdown by a defender. Straight from the dropout, though, Mark McCraith fed a perfectly-timed pass to Nick Hankin and the winger stepped the first man cleanly to dash in under the posts to give his scrumhalf an easy extra 2 points. The home side remained in complete charge and a further try came on 35 minutes, when Dec Caulfield touched down at the back of a driving maul, set up after two successive penalties against the Taunton scrum had been kicked to touch. Banks nailed an excellent conversion to take the score at halftime to 33-0.

Stortford again started quickly in the second half, but weren't quite as clinical as earlier and it took 10 minutes, before Steve Ball bagged his side's 6th try, breaking off the back of another driving maul from a 5 metre lineout, after a number of penalties had been conceded by an under pressure Taunton side. Banks' conversion attempt bounced back from an upright. The visitors showed considerable character, never giving up and, in fact now, for the first time in the game put together some good handling of their own, pushing Stortford back well into their own half. A careless offside offence by a home player at a breakdown outside their own 22 gave visiting flyhalf, Gary Kingdom a chance to kick for touch and Taunton showed that they too could score form a driving maul, with Conor Harbison getting the touchdown under the posts to give his flyhalf the easiest of conversions.after 15 minutes of the half. Within 8 minutes, though Stortford had registered two more tries with Mark McCraith and Ryan Hutler getting the touchdowns. The first came from a lightning counter-attack, after Neville had seized on a loose ball, as the visitors sought to run the ball out of their own half. This ended with the second row dummying his way over, giving Banks an easy conversion. The big centre also played a key part in the next try, with an excellent dummy and pass to give replacement wing, Hutler a clear sight of the line. Taunton's never say die approach now yielded further dividends as they went through many phases and clearly enjoyed the better of the exchanges in the final quarter of an hour. This new-found edge was exploited to the full with tries coming after 69 and 80 minutes to two of their speedy backs, fullback Aron Struminski and winger, Lewis Pratten. Kingdom lived up to his reputation as the league's top goalkicker by kicking both conversions from difficult positions to take the final score to 50-21.