Despite the gulf between their pre-match league positions, Barnstaple arrived, clearly determined to make life hard for their hosts and on the day their ball retention was generally better than Stortford's - particularly in the first half. Though the home side proved to be far more incisive, Stortford made a huge number of individual errors, which resulted in a hard-fought first 40 minutes.

Some early Stortford pressure forced a couple of penalties and, from the second Will Roberts burst off the back of a maul to score the first try of the match, after 9 minutes, to which Tom Banks added the 2 points with a good conversion. The next 16 minutes produced little excitement but, after a short spell of Stortford pressure, a penalty was conceded by Barnstaple right under their posts, apparently for backchat after a scrum had been awarded to the visitors. Banks took a quick tap and dived over to give himself an easy conversion and take his side out to a 14-0 lead. The visitors continued to battle, however, and they took full advantage of a soft penalty conceded in midfield by Stortford for offside when chasing a tactical kick to press into the Stortford 22 and a series of determined drives from their forwards, sucked in the defence and allowed fullback, Jordan Petherbridge to dummy his way over for an unconverted try. The rest of the first half was punctuated by regular handling errors, but the home side managed to mount a concerted assault, just as the first 40 minutes were running out and were unlucky, when Banks was deemed to have been held up over the line following a storming run down the left wing by Will Roberts, which had seen the prop virtually to the line. There was no time for the 5 metre scrum to be set, so the half ended with Stortford just 14-5 ahead, which was probably a fair reflection of the overall balance of play.

The second half started with a bang and the home side virtually sealed the win with 2 tries within the first 5 minutes, bringing up the bonus point and stretching the lead to 23 points, thanks to two more conversions by Banks, maintaining his 100% record off the tee. The first touchdown came after only 3 minutes and again went to the scrumhalf, who dummied his way through a huge gap at the fringe of a maul on the Barnstaple 22 to go over untouched under the posts. The second try went to Nick Hankin, who ran a threatening outside arc before dummying the opposition winger and stepping inside for an excellent solo try. Barnstaple showed their determination by battling their way back into the game, running the ball at every opportunity and retaining the ball through several phases. Eventually they fought their way into the Stortford 22 and were awarded a penalty, when the referee deemed that the home side had pulled down a driving maul, even though the Barnstaple forwards never seemed to lose momentum. Dan Elsom was singled out as the culprit and was shown a yellow card as a result. The visitors went for touch and easily drove over for a try from the resultant lineout. and Petherbridge's conversion narrowed his side's deficit to 16 points after 59 minutes. Although still not firing on all cylinders, Stortford reasserted control after that and it was no surprise, when Will Simmonds, on as a replacement wing, touched down, after a great half-break and offload by Nick Hankin set him clear to the line. The conversion was kicked by Sam Coleman, on as replacement scrumhalf for Banks.

The Travis Perkins Man of the Match award deservedly went to young blindside flanker, James Apperley.who was prominent throughout in both attack and defence and showed up consistently in the loose alongside prop, Roberts.