The powerful Redruth pack started the game strongly and an injury to Stortford's flyhalf and captain, Tom Coleman after only 6 minutes did nothing at all to settle the home team. Tom's brother, Sam came off the bench to scrumhalf, allowing Tom Banks to move to his very occasional position at flyhalf. Inevitably, it took a while for the Stortford team to adjust to these changes and the physically strong Redruth side needed no second invitation to get onto the front foot. They dominated possession and territory for most of the half - particularly through their forwards, but fantastic Stortford defence repeatedly held them out, as drive after drive was repelled, helped by some crucial turnovers at lineouts, in the loose and even at set scrums. The resultant undermining of the visitors' forward-orientated game proved crucial to the outcome of the game, as Redruth's efforts were repeatedly frustrated. The hammer blows came, though , as Storftord managed to produce three scores from their very rare incursions into the opposition half. The first came from a Tom Banks penalty, after an initial award at a breakdown to Redruth was reversed some 40 yards out. Redruth flew straight back onto the attack from the restart, but a great break from the back of a scrum in Stortford's 22 by Steve Ball took play well into the Redruth half.where Sam Winter took the ball on and stretched the visitors' defence sufficiently to give Matt Simmonds the yard of space down the outside that he needed to sprint round for a try, which Banks comfortably converted. Once again, the home side had to deal with a concerted Redruth assault and two more 5 metre lineouts were repelled and a penalty eventually won. Banksy made a lot of territory from the touch kick and his forwards used the platform to drive repeatedly at the visitors' line. Two penalties were forced in the red zone and the second produced a yellow card for Redruth's centre, Sam Parsons. Time was running out in the half and Stortford opted for a scrum instead of a penalty and Nick Hankin took full advantage, stepping in from the wing at first receiver to force his way between two tacklers to touch down for his team's second try. Banks' conversion attempt bounced out off an upright, but Stortford went into the break very happy with a 15-0 lead, which in no way reflected the balance of possession and territory, but equally was by no means a travesty of justice, given the incisiveness of Stortford's rugby, when they started getting it right.

The second half bore this out, as the home side's running rugby started to gain control, even though, because of Redruth's continued pressure, this often had to start inside Stortford's own 22. Much improved ball retention allowed positions to be built, from which some stunning rugby was played. This was epitomised by the try scored by Will Roberts after 8 minutes of the second half, when the prop was able to cut inside to touch down, after a great initial break by Banks allowed him to swap passes with Johnny Neville to cut the Redruth defence to ribbons. Banks converted to stretch the lead to 22 points and this became 27, 7 minutes later when some incisive 15 man rugby exploited a great lineout steal by James Apperley in the Stortford 22 to set Hankin free to run in his second try out wide. The conversion attempt went just wide, as it did 12 minutes later, after, Dec Caulfield rounded off another rumbustious game from the hooker to finish off some more great team handling to touch down out wide. The home side was now well in control, but Redruth refused to throw in the towel and a period of late forward pressure on the Stortford line eventually produced at the death a consolation try, scored by livewire scrumhalf, Jack Oulton, well converted by replacement, Brett Rule to take the final score to 32-7.

Given the strength of today's opposition and the inevitable disruption caused by the loss of Tom Coleman so early on, the team performance produced by Stortford in this huge match was possibly the best of the season and was produced at a crucial juncture, with rivals, Chinnor failing to take any points from their visit to Clifton. Our thanks go to Matchday sponsors, Close Brothers and to Man of the Match sponsors, GQ Wealth Management, whose award rightly went to Tom Banks who, even though playing out of position for most of the game was outstanding.