Clifton 18 Bishop's Stortford First XV 43

The first few minutes saw Stortford, with a brisk breeze at their backs exerting strong pressure, which was met by determined tackling from the home side. After 5 minutes, though the Clifton defence was breached, as Will Roberts drove hard at the line and produced a deft short pass to Nick Hankin, cutting a perfectly-timed line to see the centre touch down fairly close to the posts, from where Tom Banks had no difficulty in adding the two points. Almost directly from the restart, though, the gap was narrowed to 4 points, when Brad Barnes kicked a penalty for Clifton, after a Stortford tackle was deemed to have been high - though apparently similar challenges from Clifton had earlier gone unpunished. Undaunted, though, the visitors bounced straight back and quick hands created space out wide for Jimmy Rea to dive past his opposite number in the corner, where he was adjudged to have touched down on 13 minutes, although he had cleverly slid over on his other elbow and regained his feet to run towards the posts. As a result the conversion attempt from the touchline fell short.The home side once again replied quickly with another penalty goal - this time for a breakdown offence. Within 3 minutes, though, Stortford had struck back with their third try after 21 minutes, when Sam Winter took a great short pass from Tom Coleman, playing right on the gainline. This followed an initial dart by Banks, who had no problem converting from close to the posts. The fourth, bonus point try came only 5 minutes later, when Pier Dotta skilfully stepped his way through the last line of a still stubborn home defence for Banks, once again to convert. This fast-moving game saw a first try to Clifton after 33 minutes, when they drove the ball from a lineout close to the Stortford line, after two successive penalties had been awarded against the visitors. The conversion was missed from out wide, as it was 4 minutes later, after Jimmy Rea had scored his second try, crashing over in the corner after a brilliant take and give by Winter foiled a big hit on the centre.. With normal first half time running out, Sean Edwards was sin-binned for clearly diving through a ruck to take out the Clifton scrum half and this heralded a frantic 4 minutes of injury time, with the home side hammering at the Stortford line. Some solid tackling held the attacks out and the danger was finally snuffed out, as Stortford took a scrum against the head to clear the ball.

The second period started where the first had left off, with Stortford failing to contest Clifton's restart kick, conceding clean ball, which the home team used to set up a series of attacks, once again testing the Stortford defence to the full. Another scrum against the head helped repel the onslaught and it was the visitors that got the next score after 14 minutes. It was Jimmy Rea who finished off his hat-trick by taking a pinpoint crosskick from Tom Coleman at full pace.as the ball dropped over the head of his opposite number and the winger then calmly stepped inside the covering fullback to touch down under the posts, with Banks again adding the extras. On 18 minutes, Nick Hankin, now playing on the wing was found guilty of a high tackle and, though not remotely dangerous, the offence was nevertheless adjudged worthy of a yellow card. His presence did not seem to have been missed, however, as Seb Brownhill rounded off a period of good interplay between forwards and backs, spinning over for a (twice!) unconverted try, with a minute still to run on the sin binning. Restored to 15 men again, Stortford once more worked their way into the Clifton 22, where they were penalised for pushing early at a scrum under the posts. Clifton, not for the first time, looked to run the ball out of defence and for once found the Stortford backs misaligned and took full advantage to run virtually the length of the field, before the attack could be halted, Not to be denied, though they forced a penalty, which was taken quickly by a home forward, who crashed over the line for a converted try. Unfortunately, in his vain attempt to stop the score, Mark McCraith was injured, with a broken arm suspected. With time running out, Tom McCrone incurred the referee's displeasure and was yellow carded, signalling another period of home pressure, though it didn't really threaten to break through more stout Stortford defending. Well into injury time. there was a spat near to the visitors' 22, after a Clifton prop took exception to Will Roberts having entered a ruck from the side. The home player's vigorous retaliation resulted in a red card, with Roberts seeing yellow and, which proved to be the final acts of the match, providing a sorry end to what had been a hard but cleanly-fought contest.