CS Rugby 1863 17 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 3

The visitors started on the front foot and looked for half an hour as if their enviable record by the Thames was going to be continued. Albeit aided by the breeze, they dominated early possession, but stout home tackling limited any serious threat to their try line - the best chance having followed a scything break by scrum half, Tom Banks, when the support play was not decisive enough. Stortford, therefore, had to settle for a penalty goal by fly-half, Owen Thomas after 11 minutes, when the home side was penalised at two successive scrums. The three point lead was maintained for a quarter of an hour, at which point the home fly half levelled the scores with a penalty conceded for failing to release at a tackle in front of Stortford's posts. Things seemed to swing back in the visitors' favour 33 minutes into the game, when the CS No 4 was yellow-carded for cynically diving over the top of a ruck on their line. A period of concerted pressure on the home line ensued, including a close call, when a Stortford forward was deemed to have been held up over the line. All they were able to earn from all this pressure, however, was another penalty in a very kickable position within the CS 22 and, when this kick flew wide of the posts, it signalled a remarkable turnaround in fortunes. A misjudgement of the flight of the long 22 drop-out brought a knock-on and a front row offence by Stortford at the resultant scrum gave the home side position in the Stortford 22, which the CS fly-half exploited to the full by dummying over under the posts through a paper-thin defence. To have conceded 7 points when enjoying a one man advantage was disappointing, but the home side went hunting for more points and quickly returned to the attack, when a purposeless Stortford punt was well returned via a perfectly timed pass out of a strong tackle by Ben De Grandis on the CS fullback, which set the right wing running free. Desperate cover defence prevented an immediate score, but a careless knock on by the visitors, as they sought to clear the ball brought an attacking scrum which, with the very timely return of their 4 from the sin bin they exploited ruthlessly, setting up a maul, from which they drove over for a second try through a non-existent blind-side defence. The failed conversion attempt was the last action of the half, leaving the score 12-3 at the break.

Stortford again started the second half strongly, but the tough home defence had little difficulty in rebuffing the attacks. After nine minutes, CS gained good territory from a penalty against a Stortford player for speaking out of turn and registered their third try off the back of a dominant scrum, which was turned slightly to give their No 8 a clear run at the Stortford blind-side winger, through whom he was able to crash over the line. After 19 minutes both No 1s were yellow-carded after a scuffle between them and this resulted in unopposed scrums, since Stortford had already had to bring on their front-row substitute in the first half as replacement for injured hooker, Declan Caulfield. This unfortunately worked to the visitors' disadvantage when, only a minute later, another CS forward was yellow-carded. The game seemed to peter out thereafter, as neither side could put together any concerted play and Stortford, in particular became increasingly frantic in their efforts to fight back. The score was therefore unchanged at 17-3 at the final whistle.