Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 48 Gravesend 25

At the start of the game, the home side quickly took control, but had to settle initially for a Tom Coleman penalty after 3 minutes, when Gravesend were penalised at their own scrum, after Stortford had given a forward pass in a very threatening position. Six minutes later, the scores were nevertheless levelled by a penalty from David Mc Murtie awarded for a breakdown offence, after Stortford’s backrow had been caught out by a good scrumhalf break. Balance was soon restored, however, as Jimmy Rea touched down 12 minutes into the game after fullback, Sam Winter had seized on a handling error by the visitors and committed the last defender before setting his winger clear. The conversion was missed, but it took only two more minutes for the home side to register its next score via a touchdown out wide by centre, Jonno Child, rounding off a move, again started by Winter with good backup by hooker, Declan Caulfield. This time, Coleman was able to add the 2 points from wide out. Only 4 minutes later and the home side extended their lead again through a try by centre, John Stocker, who strolled over after one of the Aldams(!) had seized on a poor Gravesend lineout ball and found good support from the Child brothers. Coleman’s conversion attempt again went narrowly wide, but the bonus point try was only five minutes away, when backrow, Hamish Irving touched down. This followed a decisive inside pass from Wayne Child from a position created by a turnover at a Gravesend scrum, arising from a tremendous Stortford shove. Coleman this time made no mistake with the conversion and, ten minutes later he was the fulcrum of the move of the match, when lightning fast interplay between him, Stocker and Rea, saw the winger in under the posts for his second try, which the flyhalf had no problem in converting. This took the home side to a commanding 34-3 lead, making totally inexplicable a “professional” offence, as Gravesend finally threatened the Stortford line several minutes into first half injury time, when home scrumhalf, Sam Coleman handled in a ruck close to the Stortford line, which duly produced a yellow card. The futility of the offence was almost immediately driven home, as Gravesend’s forwards forced their way over for a try almost directly from the resultant penalty to take the halftime score to 34-08.

Despite starting the second period one man short, Stortford reshuffled their front row at halftime and were soon made to pay, as they were pushed off their own ball at a scrum and the reinvigorated Gravesend pack drove forward for a try after 5 minutes to veteran prop, Jamie Forsyth, duly converted by Mc Murtie. The home side soon shook off its initial lethargy, however and, after 12 minutes, Stocker scored his second try off a long pass from Tom Coleman from a position created by brother, Sam taking a quick penalty, when 3 points would have been a formality. Tom duly converted but, almost immediately was substituted, having taken a couple of very hard knocks earlier in the game. As if losing their captain and chief playmaker was of itself not enough, the resultant reshuffle saw most of the Stortford backline changing positions, as Sam Whiffen came on at scrumhalf, Coleman junior, then moved out to the wing in place of Wayne Child, who moved into the centre, alongside his brother, allowing Stocker to move to flyhalf. The inevitable disruption to the home side’s back play soon became evident as a resilient Gravesend side took full advantage of some poor Stortford tackling – with the notable exception of Winter – to mount a period of concerted pressure, resulting in two tries, the first, one through their forwards and the second on the left wing after 20 and 23 minutes. Neither was converted, but the margin between the sides had been reduced to 16 points. Now scrappy both in attack and defence, Stortford were, nevertheless, able to ease their way to victory when, after 26 minutes, Rea registered his third try. He was given space by Whiffen, who had easily gathered an optimistic Gravesend chip out of defence and committed the defence, before setting his winger free with a good long pass. Stocker converted to take the score to 48-25, which is how the match ended, despite some renewed pressure from a very determined Gravesend side.