Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 28 Ampthill 22

The home side got off to an horrendous start, conceding a try within the first 5 minutes of the game. The crucial error was to fail to stop a strong Ampthill pack at source from a lineout on the Stortford 22, allowing one of their big forwards to break a first-up tackle and almost make the try line. In holding the attack up, the home side conceded a penalty and from the resultant 5 metre lineout Stortford could not halt their much heavier opponents, who crashed over for the 5 points. Over the next 15 minutes, though, matters became much worse as three yellow cards were shown to Stortford players and two further tries were conceded. The first yellow card came 10 minutes into the game, whem Maehe Austin, who had already been warned for twice reacting to some sharp practice from the visitors' streetwise forwards could not resist retaliating on behalf of fellow flanker, Richard Gill after he was cynically taken out on the floor well away from the ruck, having not even regained his feet after making a great tackle. The visitors soon took advantage of the extra player with a second unconverted try to their outside centre, Paul Davies, feeding off an excellent outside break and offload by fellow centre, Kyle Palm. The second Stortford yellow card was rashly incurred by prop, Richie McMillan for a body check out wide inside the Ampthill half 16 minutes into the game and the home side was down to 12 players 5 minutes later, when No. 8, Mark McCraith was penalised and carded for a "professional" foul at a breakdown inside the home 5 metre area. Not surprisingly, Ampthill took a scrum, but they were perhaps surprised themselves to be immediately awarded a penalty try after the first confrontation between their 8 and Stortford's 6 forwards collapsed. After the inevitable conversion saw the vistors to a 17 point lead, the prospects for Stortford's young side did not look at all good. Finally, though, they managed to get a modicum of ball and within 3 minutes, despite still having only 13 men on the pitch, they managed to register their own converted try, as centre, John Stocker, taking a great inside line off flyhalf, Tom Coleman burst through two tackles to touch down under the posts. Coleman duly converted. Stortford then enjoyed much the better of the possession and territory for the next quarter of an hour and came very close to further tries on 2 occasions. Unfortunately, though, from the home team's perspective the last score of the half went to the opposition when excellent interplay from their flyhalf and right wing made good ground from a testing Stortford kick and strong inside support saw them over for a third try to take the halftime score to 7-22.

The home side started the second half in a positive vein and once again dominated early possession but knock-ons and forward passes at crucial times spoiled some impressive running and passing and prevented any further scoring for 25 minutes - aided by a missed penalty by the visitors from almost under the posts on a very rare sortie into Stortford territory. Ironically, after Stortford's first half battles against 3 yellow cards, a first sin-bin for Ampthill's prop, Ross Davies after 25 minutes of the second period (for a block on a Stortford player looking to follow up a grubber kick ahead) seemed to provide a major swing of impetus when, within 2 minutes, flanker, Maehe Austin touched down under the Ampthill posts, stepping in at first receiver off a Stortford set-piece on the Ampthill 5 metre line. The home cause was greatly helped when the vistors' substitute backrow, Stuart Riding incurred a further yellow card for foul play on Austin after his try. Coleman's conversion took the score to 14-22 and Stortford were right back in the game. Five more minutes saw the gap narrowed to a mere single point, as Stortford's fullback, Sam Winter capitalised on some further fluent handling by his team to round the Ampthill left wing with apparent ease and run round for a try under the posts, which Coleman duly converted. All the previous handling errors were now consigned to history, as the home side again launched onto the attack and it took only another 3 minutes to register the 4th, bonus point-winning try, which crucially saw Stortford in the lead for the first time in the match. The score came from some excellent interplay between forwards and backs, with Will Freeston, enjoying probably his best game of the season, once again to the fore. On the end of this was second row, Hamish Irving, standing out in the centres and he made telling ground and drew the last man perfectly to pass to Stocker, who registered his second try out wide on the right. Coleman's excellent conversion gave a tremendous extra fillip to his side, meaning that Ampthill needed a converted try. In the event, the home side saw out the last 4 or 5 minutes fairly comfortably, maintaining their concentration and tempo to quash any thoughts the visitors might have had af a comeback.

Although technically, today's performance probably fell a little way short of the levels achieved three weeks ago against Dorking, this win will live long in the memories of those lucky enough to have been at Silver Leys today as a remarkable fightback, demonstrating the colossal strength of Stortford's team spirit, backed up by high fitness levels. Well done, boys, but no relaxation until after next week's game, please!