Havant 41 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 24

The first half of this game saw a stuttering Stortford at their worst - regular turnovers inviting a desperate and highly motivated opposition onto the attack followed by feeble defending, which served to boost the flagging confidence of a home side coming off five successive losses. The pattern for the half was set after 3 minutes when Stortford, having won their own opening dropout and gone through a few phases, turned over the ball with the first of many knock-ons. From the
resultant scrum right in the centre of the pitch, Havant broke to the right and a simple long pass sufficed to put their wing and fullback outside Stortford's sole centre on that side and running at a stranded winger. Three or four passes saw the home right wing touching down under the posts, making an easy conversion for their 10. (Note to readers - the impersonal references to Havant players reflect no lack of respect; merely a lack of information, since the matchday programme, unfortunately omitted team info). Eight minutes into the game and the margin was widened to 8, when Havant kicked a penalty after Stortford were penalised in front of the posts for offside. Worse was to follow, when another turnover by the visitors after 18 minutes allowed Havant to move the ball first to the right and then back to the left, where they took full advantage of an ill-judged charge out of the defensive line by a Stortford centre for the home side's left wing to run round under the posts for a converted try. It was now Havant's turn to show a bit of generosity, as they missed two relatively easy penalty kicks at goal. On 32 minutes, though the home side took full advantage of a dreadful chip kick out of Stortford's 22m, when their No 8 fielded the ball and broke through the first tackles to spin the ball out left for another converted try to the left wing. There followed an even more disastrous couple of minutes for the visitors when, after 35 minutes their skipper, Mark McCraith was yellow carded for failing to release a tackled player, followed by an injury a minute later to Vice Captain and fly half, Tom Coleman. This required a total restructuring of the threequarters, with Marcus Cattell moving from 12 to 10, Nick Harris from 13 to 12 and substitute Lewis Codling fitting in at outside centre. Havant took immediate advantage of the resultant added disarray in the visitors' ranks, when their No 8 broke off the back of a scrum on the Stortford 22 to spin through an attempted tackle by Cattell and almost make the line himself. Although stopped just short, he managed to move the ball away to the left, where a 4 on 2 position was exploited for another converted try taking the score to a deserved 31-0. There remained only time before halftime for the home side finally to botch another try scoring chance, the last pass going to Stortford's wing, Simon Wasley on his own 22, who proceeded to gallop upfield, chased in vain by the whole Havant backline, to touch down under the posts. The conversion by Codling took the halftime score to 31-7.

Turning to play with the breeze, Stortford started the second half much more aggressively and built upon two strong scrums to take play into the Havant half, where Jimmy Rea (switched at halftime to scrum half, with Joe Foster moving to fullback) made a great break from the base of a ruck to beat four or five men and race away to touch down under the home posts. Codling, unfortunately was unable to make the conversion. Aided by a yellow card after 10 minutes for the Havant 10, Stortford continued to press, but were unable to capitalise on a number of good scoring chances. The next, probably crucial score went to the home side 22 minutes into the half, when their speedy left wing just outpaced Wasley in a chase to touchdown a very well-judged chip kick by the Havant 9 from the base of a ruck close to the Stortford 22. Again showing more spirit, Stortford fought back to register the next two tries - the first by substitute prop, Richard McMillan after 24 minutes(on since 20 minutes of the first half for Oli Day, who had failed to recover from a hamstring pull suffered in the warm-up) from a drive after a 5 metre lineout - and the second to Rea 26 minutes into the half, diving over from the fringe of a ruck on the Havant line, following a quick penalty for offside, for which offence the home No 8 had been yellow-carded. Two minutes later, the visitors wasted another golden scoring opportunity, when the final pass from Foster that would have set Wasley free for another try under the posts was adjudged forward. This would have taken the score to 36-31 and the resultant pressure on the home side might well have brought more opportunities for Stortford. As it was, though, the let-off lifted the Havant players, who enjoyed the better of the remaining fast and furious exchanges. This eventually led to the final score of the game, when Havant's 6 touched down out wide, after Stortford - finishing, unfortunately pretty much as they had started - making a hash of an attempt to run a quick penalty from inside their own 22.