Henley Hawks 28 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 38

Stortford looked confident at the start, but a poor clearance kick and an injury to Will Simmonds in making a tackle in the chase left 14 men to defend in their own 22 and a lightening quick penalty by Henley, taken almost before the whistle had blown caught Stortford completely on the hop and allowed prop, Dave Manning to trundle over unopposed to touch down after 10 minutes, giving his kicker an easy conversion. The scores were level 9 minutes later, when Nick Hankin, cutting in from the blindside wing made a clean break from a short, Tom Coleman pass to dive over in the corner. Tom Banks kicked a tremendous conversion into the breeze. There followed 20 minutes of hard-fought rugby, with Stortford, enjoying a clear edge in both scrum and lineout having slightly the better of the exchanges, as both sides hurled themselves into the fray, with a number of injuries resulting. It was only after 39 minutes had elapsed, therefore that Stortford finally took the lead, when Will Simmonds' pace took him under the posts from some 40 yards out, after another great break through the outside centre channel by Hankin. Banks converted, but the try-scorer now succumbed to injury, with Nic Clancy coming on at 15 and Simmonds moving to the left wing in Hankin's place. The Aussie made an almost immediate impact, taking a long pass from an attacking Henley kick into the Stortford 22 to run open and chip perfectly into space behind the advancing home back line, where he regathered, found Johnny Neville in close support and the big centre had just enough pace to beat the cover defence to reach the try line, giving Banks an easy conversion. The visitors were now well on top and were soon pressing again on the Henley line, where the defenders needed to collapse a maul right on their line to prevent the bonus point try being scored. Some more sturdy and legitimate defence then followed and, eventually the ball was turned over and the ball kicked into touch to bring the half to an end wit the scoreline 7-21.

Stortford started the second period sluggishly and a poor tactical kick into the Henley 22 was easily fielded and adavntage taken of a woefully weak attempted tackle to break into the Stortford half. Seemingly lifted by this, Henley threw themselves into a series of attacks and eventually, after about 8 min, in which the visitors barely touched the ball, the home team stretched the defence to breaking point for a converted try to narrow the deficit to only 7 points. With the balance of advantage at the lineout having swung to the home team and with greater parity in the set scrums, the pressure was on, but this was relieved somewhat only 3 minutes later, when Johnny Neville score his second and his side's fourth try, busting through the defensive line and rounding the fullback, after a tremendous turnover won by replacement number 8, Rory Banks. His brother's conversion restored the 14 point lead and a searing break by the scrumhalf from the base of a ruck shortly after almost brought him a great solo try, which was frustrated only by a last-ditch tackle right on the Henley line. The referee appeared to have awarded the visitors a penalty against the tackler, who clearly played the ball back out of the tackle without regaining his feet but, for some reason, after yet another injury break the game restarted with a scrum to Henley. Stortford nevertheless quickly won a couple of penalties, but were unable to take advantage of the resultant 5 metre lineouts and the next score went to the home team, with a great break from the base of a ruck in their own half by George Jackson catching Stortford's flat defence totally on the hop and allowing the scrumhalf to dash in under the posts after 29 minutes without a hand being laid on him. The easy conversion duly narrowed the points gap once more to 7 points. Stortford swept back onto the attack but this time it took them 6 minutes to reply and, despite a Henley replacement having been shown a yellow card for collapsing a maul driving at the Henley line, they decided to settle for 3 points from the reliable boot of Tom Banks, after lineout errors had resulted in two previous penalties proving unproductive. Some proper breathing space was soon created, though, when Stortford attacked straight from the restart and, although Jimmy Rea lost his footing in beating the last man, after fielding a well-judged crosskick from Tom Coleman, Sam Winter was in close support to crash over in the corner. Another tremendous conversion from Banks stretched the lead to 17 points, but Henley showed great fighting spirit to launch themselves into another concerted attack and were rewarded with a converted, bonus point try right at the death.

This was a rousing match, fiercely contested by both sides and the blood pressure of Stortford's large crowd of traveling supporters was put to the test for extended periods, as the scores seesawed from side to side. A week off now, which will give a welcome opportunity for recovery from a number of heavy knocks, while the game plan for our next match at home to Redruth is worked on.