Blackheath 19 Bishop's Stortfrd First XV 21

Playing with the breeze and slope, Blackheath dominated most of the first period with hard, aggressive rugby and some clinical finishing. Right from the off, Stortford were pressed back into their own half and it took some determined defence to keep their line intact for the first 10 minutes. This was epitomised with the successful combating of two driving mauls by the big Blackheath pack from attacking lineouts in the red zone. The home side continued to turn the screw, though and, forced a couple of penalties, which took them deep into Stortford's half. Good lineout ball was this time spun quickly wide and, unusually, the visitors' defence was found wanting with an overlap created all too easily, which Blackheath's left wing finished off ruthlessly. Flyhalf, Joe Tarrant added an excellent touchline conversion. Stortford were struggling to get a toehold in the game, with Blackheath's aggressive line speed and tackling forcing turnovers on the few occasions that the visitors managed to gain possession. After 18 minutes the home side added an unconverted try to their tally, when they returned a second successive defensive Stortford kick that failed to find touch after some good tactical kicking from Blackheath. A rather lacklustre Stortford chase and some questionable tackling, made the home side's job a little easier but they once again showed their ability to close out chances. When flanker, Harry Bate scored a third try with 37 minutes played and Tarrant took the lead out to 19 points with another good conversion, Stortford, who had yet to mount any sort of concerted attack looked almost out for the count. Anyone, who has seen them play this season, though, knows that the side never gives up and, in typically gritty fashion, they ended the half with a period of sustained possession, slowly working their way up the field and winning a penalty at a breakdown, after the ball had been moved wide to the left. George Cullen kicked to touch and the pack finished things off, driving the resultant maul over the Blackheath line for a try to Will Roberts - a great end to 40 minutes of hard running from the prop, clearly relishing the chance to rattle a few ribs among his former Blackheath teammates. Cullen completed the half with a great conversion from out wide to send his side into the break only 12 points behind - a pretty satisfactory situation on the balance of play.

The second half was a mirror-image of the first, with Stortford dominating possession and territory and the home side this time being called upon to show determination in defence. The visitors exerted considerable early pressure and threatened to break through for a try out wide, but the chance was spurned with a careless pass being thrown straight to a Blackheath defender just short of the line. The home side were quick to counter and would have scored a probably decisive 4th try, had their outside backs not got in a muddle out wide, being penalised for crossing with the Stortford try line wide open. That proved to be the last time that the home side was seen as a an attacking force, as Stortford started to go through the gears, showing some of the remorseless 15-man rugby of which they are capable. It was just such a spell of free-flowing rugby that finally stretched the home defence to breaking point, with debutant fullback, Rob Duff combining with Chris Smith to put the winger clear for a try well scored round behind the posts after 50 minutes. Cullen's conversion narrowed the deficit to 5 points and his side spent much of the remaining half an hour hammering at the Blackheath line but repeatedly foundering on some tremendously committed defending. A couple of times, Stortford were guilty of trying to force a score too quickly, resulting in turnovers, but they stuck to their guns and swept back quickly onto the attack. Eventually, a combination of greater patience and some good long passing stretched the home defence and Stortford's army of traveling supporters were convinced that Smith would have scored his second try, but for a blatant, diving knock-on of the "scoring pass". The officials, though were not convinced that a try would definitely have been scored and a yellow card for the culprit, No. 15 was deemed to be sufficient punishment. With only a couple of minutes to go, this might have been decisive but, undeterred, Stortford launched another series of sharp attacks from the resultant penalty to touch. Finally they moved the ball wide, where Duff took full advantage of the missing defender to outpace his opposite number with a diagonal dash to the line. This leveled the scores and, with time virtually up, Cullen was faced with a testing conversion kick for the win. After several deep breaths, the flyhalf coolly slotted the kick to the great delight of his teammates and triggering huge celebrations among their supporters, whose hearts could finally be removed from their mouths.

Congratulations also to the Blues, who won 22-5 at second-placed Blackheath 2s to clock up their second big away win in a row, having accounted for jersey two weeks ago.