Hertford 3 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 18

Stortford started with a real bang, pressurising an excellent opening dropout by Tom Coleman and forcing an immediate penalty at the breakdown. Unfortunately, the flyhalf's attempt at goal was not up to the standard of his initial drop kick and flew narrowly wide of the posts. Despite the early injury to Edwards, the visitors were not to be denied for long and, with only 5 minutes gone, Sam Whiffen rounded off an excellent move down a fairly wide blindside, in which fullback, Sam Winter and wing, Wayne Child both made good ground, before giving their scrumhalf a sight of the line from some 15 metres out, which was all he needed. Coleman this time made no mistake with a difficult conversion. The flyhalf's boot was once again effective, when he took the opportunity of a Hertford offside quite close to halfway to extend the lead to 10 points after 8 minutes. The whole complexion of the game was, however, changed only 4 minutes later, when the referee seemed to have a totally different view from virtually everyone else watching the game, when he deemed a strong tackle by Stortford's centre, Jonno Child to have been sufficiently dangerous to warrant an immediate red card. The player certainly did lift his opponent's feet off the ground - to stop the momentum that the attacking player had when running into the virtually stationary defender. The tackled player's feet may well have gone slightly above parallel to the ground as a result of his momentum and, therefore have, technically, at least merited a yellow card, but there was no malicious intent, as demonstrated by the way in which the tackled player was allowed to drop safely to the ground. It was, therefore, hard for the bulk of the spectators, including many home supporters to understand why a red card was produced. While the numerical imbalance between the two sides required some change of tactics from the visitors, the remaining Stortford players were clearly determined not to allow the incident to give the initiative to the home side. Having held off a brief but determined assault on their line by the Hertford forwards shortly after the incident, the fourteen men continued to enjoy the better of the game and, despite even more space being created on the pitch by the yellow-carding of both sides' No 6s after 18 minutes, the visitors' line seldom came under threat. Stortford indeed, enjoyed the better of subsequent exchanges and were denied another score only when a long penalty attempt by Coleman after 30 minutes came back unluckily off a post. Better was, however, to come some 4 minutes later, with a try for hooker, Declan Caulfield, now covering at prop for the injured Edwards. This came off some excellent ground made down the right by Whiffen, collecting his own chip kick and, with quick ball from the breakdown, Coleman put in a pinpoint crosskick, which was gathered by winger, Jimmy Rea, who was able to pass out of the instant tackle by his opposite number to set the supporting frontrower clear to the line. Coleman's conversion attempt was not his best in the now very slippery conditions, leaving the score at 0-15. Hertford battled back and, when Stortford failed to deal with a good up and under kick landing almost on their 22, the strength of the home side's chase forced a penalty for offside at the ruck in front of the posts. The resultant easy kick at goal after 36 minutes took the score to 3-15, where it stayed until halftime.

Hertford started the second half with renewed determination and had the better of early exchanges, threatening for the first time to stretch the 6 man Stortford backline. The visitors' defence stayed very strong, however, and a period of significant pressure was eventually relieved by a tremendous interception within his own 22 by powerhouse No 8, Mark McCraith. He then showed considerable pace, being caught and dragged down by a Hertford winger only some 15 yards short of the home side's line. He managed to find support from his flyhalf, but Coleman's attempted pass inside was knocked dead by a retreating Hertford centre. An extra effort by the home scrum at the resultant 5 metre scrum produced a turnover and killed off the threat for the moment. Four minutes later, though and the visitores' lead was stretched to 15 and a minumum 3 scores, when Coleman kicked a penalty after Hertford's 6 was penalised for a blatant high tackle, which earned the player also a stern lecture from the referee. Despite failing further to trouble the scorers, Stortford continued to have the better of most of the game with some excellent tactical kicking by Coleman and continued commitment by the whole side in covering the extra ground and making the extra tackles for their missing teammate. Hertford did, though manage to launch one more dangerous attack on the back of another good up and under kick, but the danger was snuffed out by a strong tackle by replacement flanker, Jamie Campbell - on for Chris Aldam - which jolted the ball out of a Hertford player's hands for a knock-on. Stortford were then able to see the remaining minutes out quite comfortably to the final scoreline of 3-18.

This was a tremendous performance by a side reduced to fourteen men for more than 80% of the game. It is to be hoped that failure to gain the four try bonus point, that might well have been won by a full side, does not prove to be decisive at the end of the season. Next, though comes the stiff challenge that is to be expected from an in-form Westcombe Park, coming off a string of recent wins to face Stortford at Silver Leys on January 5th.