Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 25 Rosslyn Park 27

Rosslyn Park started strongly, as might be expected from a team in the upper reaches of the league, but Stortford's colossal defence first blunted and then totally nullified a powerful attack in this game sponsored by Barons BMW. Despite early hiccups at the lineout, Stortford built on this defensive platform and, when George Cullen dislodged the ball in a tackle out wide, he was first to react to seize on the loose ball and hare up the touchline. A he was closed down by a covering defender, he passed the ball inside, which was batted deliberately into touch by a defender and, Tom Banks unerringly knocked over the resultant penalty to give his side a 3 point lead after 9 minutes. The home side again had to resist some strong attacking play from Park and did so well but, eventually a much less clear-cut decision for a deliberate knock-on against Banks at close quarters gave the visitors a shot at goal from in front of the posts after 20 minutes or so and the scores were level. More stout tackling from Stortford forced another penalty close to halfway and Banks' quick tap and 20 metre dash upfield, ending with a good off load took his side into the opposition 22. They were, unfortunately unable to win their own ball at a subsequent 22 lineout, but, nevertheless kept the pressure on and were rewarded with another penalty, which Banks converted after 27 minutes. Stortford now came increasingly into the game as an attacking force and seized the initiative with converted tries after 32 and 39 minutes, after the visitors' hooker had been sin-binned for a cynical breakdown offence, as the pressure was ramped up. The first score went to Dec Caulfield, who was driven over by his pack and half the backline, from a lineout after the penalty that came with the yellow card. Banks converted, as he did 6 minutes later, when Joss Linney gave him an easy task, after holding the ball up as he slid over in the corner and running round to touch down under the posts. This took the home team into the break with a 20-3 lead.

Rosslyn Park started the second period strongly, but were met, once again with a stone-wall defence, which produced a quick turnover close to halfway. Nick Hankin seized on the ball and made good ground before offloading to James Apperley, who galloped on to draw the last defender to give Rob Duff just enough room to sprint down the touchline and touch down in the corner. Banks' conversion attempt fell just short but a 22 point lead would surely be enough to allow his team to break their run of losing games. Unfortunately, Park had other ideas and the visitors proceeded to take complete control of the game. It has to be said that their excellent endeavours were greatly helped by a series of errors of judgement by Stortford. The self belief, which they should have gained from the way that they had been able to run through phases and keep their opponents mostly on the back foot for the previous 20 minutes, seemed to evaporate and ball was turned over far too easily. The ball was twice kicked early and, while the execution wasn't bad, it handed the ball over to a powerful running side with now nothing to lose. More significantly, though, calm heads were missing on a number of crucial occasions and soft penalties were conceded, which allowed Park to crank up the pressure. This resulted in three tries after 50, 72 and 78 minutes and a penalty goal after 64, which were enough to completely turn the tables and the try conversions - two of them excellent efforts from out wide and under great pressure put the visitors into the lead for the first time in the whole match with only 2 minutes to go. Stortford still hurled themselves back onto the attack, but a knock-on in contact effectively ended the contest, despite a shove by the home pack at the resultant scrum that put their No 8 under great pressure. Unfortunately, Charlie Kingham was injured in the move leading up to the final scrum and was stretchered off after a lengthy delay. It is believed that this was just a precautionary measure and it is to be hoped that he will quickly be back into the fray.

The Man of the Match award, presented by Dominic Russell of the Russell Partnership rightly went to centre, Jack Scantlebury, who stepped up once more from the Blues to put in a huge shift, leading the line both in defence and in attack.

Next up we travel on January 5 to fellow league strugglers, Birmingham Moseley. Their recent results. boosted by some mid-season recruitment have picked up significantly, so another big challenge, which will doubtless be tackled head-on by a Stortford team full of spirit and missing only that final ounce of self-belief needed to start finishing sides off.