In perfect, dry conditions, on Loughborough's 4G pitch, both sides started looking to play, quick, expansive rugby and, although the home team probably enjoyed a slight edge in the early exchanges, it was Stortford that opened the scoring, when Will Roberts reached through a ruck of players to place the ball on the line after 6 minutes. The position had been created through a well-drilled lineout, producing quick ball off the top, from which Sam Winter hit a flat pass to crash through the first line of defence. George Cullen converted well, but the good work was immediately undone, when Loughborough were allowed to take clean ball from their restart kick and drove through to score a very similar try to Stortford's with barely 2 more minutes elapsed. The conversion attempt went wide, as it did 17 minutes later, following a good backs' try to the home side, when a pinpoint crossfield kick/pass was taken cleanly by the right wing in space, who made ground down the flank before finding support inside. The rest of the half passed with much endeavour on both sides, but, with Loughborough's pack having a clear edge in the scrums, they once again looked the slightly more threatening.
The second half was much less even, with an increasingly lacklustre and often slipshod Stortford struggling to string any phases together under heavy pressure from Loughborough's aggressive defence. In marked contrast, when the home side attacked they always looked threatening. Their cause was greatly helped by a flying start, when they were awarded a penalty in front of goal, having taken yet another clean drop out ball of their own and flyhalf, Owen Waters kicked the three points. The home side's tails were up and they added a converted try after 9 minutes of the half, when centre Oskar Hirskyi-Douglas scythed through the centre of Stortford's defence from some 20 metres out, with barely a hand laid on him. Stortford did then manage briefly to threaten with a couple of individual breaks but, on each occasion an error led to the ball being turned over. A golden opportunity arose for the visitors, when home No 8, Freddie Tuilagi was yellow-carded for a high tackle after 20 minutes but, far from capitalising on this advantage, they proceeded to concede another try 6 minutes later. Loughborough were now attacking with increased confidence and fluency but, ironically the score came from a scrappy loose ball, which they simply wanted more than the defenders and, having recovered the ball, quick hands and quick feet saw winger, Alex Glashon in for an unconverted try out wide on 28 minutes. Following personnel changes in the front rows, Stortford now were enjoying a decided advantage at scrum time and it was particularly disappointing, therefore, to see Loughborough scramble ball back from a rapidly retreating scrum in their own half to set the first receiver galloping into acres of space, where a well-judged rolling kick was gathered by a supporting player for a simple try, this time well converted by Waters on 37 minutes. With time running out, Stortford finally managed to string a handful of phases together, taking a quickly tapped penalty to set Dec Caulfield and Matt Tomlinson crashing forward and, when the ball was moved quickly from the breakdown, Joss Linney, supporting in the centre from the blindside wing was able to exploit the stretched defence to burst between two defenders for a consolation try, converted by Cullen.