Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 27 Henley Hawks 17

Bishop's Stortford RFC 1st XV vs Henley Hawkes

vs = Click to read the program

---

Stortford started the game strongly and were 7 points up within 4 minutes, when winger, Ryan Hutler gathered a perfectly-weighted grubber kick from Johnny Neville, after an initial break by George Cullen had been carried on by Will Simmonds. Tom Banks's excellent kick from the touchline delivered the extra 2 points. Another convincing kick from the scrumhalf added another 3 points after 18 minutes, when Henley were penalised some 30 metres out at a breakdown after further pressure from the home side. Things looked even better a couple of minutes later, when the visitors' 13 was yellow-carded for a punch, but Stortford were unable to capitalise on the one man advantage, despite winning a penalty 5 metres from the Henley line. Despite having struggled at previous lineouts, the home side went for touch and, when they suffered yet another turnover, you could almost see the Henley heads go up. They proceeded to go through multiple phases, retaining the ball despite the very difficult handling conditions in the persistent drizzle and 8 minutes later reaped their due reward with a try, as hooker, Tom Emery burst across the line from the back of a maul. The relatively easy conversion was missed, but the visitors were undaunted and continued to dominate possession and territory, with further assistance from a misfiring Stortford lineout.. Some sort of a barney after the score produced yellow cards for Mark McCraith and Henley's 12 and, in conditions like today's this certainly didn't disadvantage the visitors, who asserted themselves even more strongly and 12 minutes later, they duly took the lead, as they drove a maul over the Stortford line from way outside the 5 metre line for No 6, Tom Hall to touch down and this time, George Jackson made no mistake with the conversion, which saw his side take a 10-12 lead into the break.

Unlike the previous week at London Irish there was no immediate improvement in Stortford's game at the start of the second half and Henley again were very much on the front foot, denying the home side much ball at all and pretty much camping in the opposition half. After 6 minutes this pressure was made to tell, when flyhalf, Tom Parton scored an excellent individual try, chipping the ball over Stortford's flat defensive line from only 5 metres out and darting through to gather the ball cleanly and dot down close to the posts. Remarkably, though the conversion was scuffed wide, as was a relatively easy penalty attempt some 12 minutes later. These escapes meant that the Stortford deficit remained at only 7 points and, as the home pack started to dominate at the scrums, it was their turn to take the whip hand and exert pressure by depriving Henley of the ball. It took only two minutes for this to show on the scoreboard, as replacement prop, as is his wont, made his considerable presence felt with a try, after George Cullen had taken on some good first phase ball, despite the ball having ricocheted off the referee's shoulder. Banks's conversion attempt bounced out off the near post to leave his side 2 points behind. The play was now all in one direction, though and it took only 9 minutes before this was made to count, as hooker, Dec Caulfield rounded off some good handling to touch down under the posts from a well-timed short pass from Tom Coleman. Banks made no mistake with the conversion to stretch the lead to 5 points, but this lead was briefly challenged, as Henley ran the ball back and it took a great cover tackle on their right winger to stop a levelling score and, indeed force a knock-on. Three scrums and two penalties later, Stortford were in the visitor's 22 and a further penalty was kicked to touch 5 metres out, when many might have looked to further exploit their dominance at the scrum. The lineout, however, now benefiting from a more positive approach went like clockwork and, despite more strong Henley defence of the resultant driving maul, the pack, reinforced by Jimmy Rea's massive weight from the wing, were able to drive over for the bonus point try, with time virtually running out. The narrowly missed conversion, therefore didn't matter, with the 5th point safely secured, which, unfortunately deprived a battling and far from outclassed Henley side of their own bonus point.

After such a close-run game, the losses by Elthamians and Chinnor, taking Stortford to second place in the league and only 2 points behind Chinnor really added icing and the cherry to the cake of another clean sweep by Stortford teams today, with the Blues beating Henley's seconds well and the still mighty Fifths defeating Ampthill!

For the Firsts, though the major challenges - and opportunities! - of a trip to Redruth next week, followed by the visit to Silver Leys of table-topping Chinnor lie ahead. Exciting times!